Brodificoum is commonly used for rat and mouse control in the bush and around buildings, and is the rat poison anyone can buy at the supermarket without a permit. (It's much less humane than 1080 and takes longer to break down in the environment, but you don't see people protesting brodifacoum outside supermarkets.) Wētā love to eat brodifacoum bait pellets, and it doesn't kill them, but Adele suspects it may be changing their behaviour, such as how often they emerge to feed, how far they travel, and how aggressive they are.
As well as talks on insects, there were presentations on spiders, which are more or less an honorary insect at these events. Anne Wignall at Massey University Albany had been studying a common house spider, the daddy-long-legs Pholcus phalangoides.
These are territorial, staking out one corner of a ceiling and repelling intruders. Anne was curious about whether these spiders could recognize each other; something called the "dear enemy" effect in vertebrates, where animals are more aggressive to complete strangers than rivals they've already encountered. Sure enough, when spiders were allowed to become familiar with each other, their territorial battles, while no less frequent, became less violent. It's remarkable the think that a creature with such a tiny brain can remember its opponents and assess the risk of fighting.
The conference finished with Bugs in the Pub in Frank eatery. Three entomologists gave short talks on beetles, insect weaponry, and whether we should eat more bugs, and invited questions from the audience. Afterwards, beers in hand, pubgoers chatted with the scientists and looked at a selection of live insects they'd brought along - a fitting end to a grand three-day conversation on the wonders of the insect world.
Dr Mike Dickison is Curator of Natural History at the Whanganui Regional Museum.
