Black field cricket is a serious pest for vegetables (especially kūmara) and pasture in northern areas of New Zealand. Control options are limited, and the risk of resistance development due to the limited modes of action is high and of concern to growers. 

This Vegetables New Zealand-A Lighter Touch project, being undertaken by the Bioeconomy Science Institute, is focused on finding new control options for the pest.  

A previous Plant & Food Research AGMARDT-funded study successfully demonstrated the concept of an electronic acoustic caller to attract crickets can work.  The work now underway as part of the VNZ-ALT project will help refine the caller and trap combination to maximise trap effectiveness and efficiency. This work is being carried out at a kumara farm in Whangarei. 

Following trap testing, the next phase of the project will be to evaluate a biopesticide in the laboratory to determine if it will infect and kill black field cricket. If effective, the biopesticide could be sprayed on crickets caught in the trap, which would then be released to infect other crickets.   

The initial stage of the project, a knowledge review of literature and current kūmara grower pest management practice has been completed. It aimed to identify possible control options, or gaps in knowledge required to be filled in order to develop control options for black field crickets as well as other vegetables and pasture, and determined the focus of the next steps in this project. 

Read articles about the project below:

July 2023:  Control options sought for pest targeting kūmara crops

February 2026: Lure trap trials target black field crickets

Watch a video case study explaining the project below: