Source: Radio New Zealand
A sign warning of yellow-legged hornets on the North Shore in Auckland. RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
From ants inside clothing packages from Australia to potentially deadly European hornets, Auckland has recently become a hotspot for unwanted insects from overseas.
Aucklander Jayd Graham, 21, was disgusted to find ants inside the sealed packaging of one of two dresses she ordered from Australia.
“I opened the package in my room. The first dress was completely fine. But then I opened the second dress and started seeing ants all over my bed. In the package with the second dress, there were eggs and ants crawling everywhere. I literally ran outside and chucked it on the ground.
“I was like, that’s disgusting, and my mates said I should make a video on TikTok.”
Biosecurity officers confirmed the ants were an Australian species already present in New Zealand.
In response to RNZ’s questions about whether the package had ants in it upon arriving in New Zealand, Biosecurity acknowledged that some unwanted pests can slip through the border security system.
Graham said the clothing brand she ordered from, which did not respond to RNZ’s request for comment, ultimately replaced her order and gave her a voucher.
Meanwhile, also in Auckland, Biosecurity staff are searching for yellow-legged hornets and their nests after the invasive pest, which wreaks havoc on overseas agriculture, was spotted in the country for the first time in 2025.
To date, 51 queen yellow-legged hornets and 61 nests have been found on Auckland’s North Shore.
Retired Hawke’s Bay beekeeper, Peter Berry. Supplied
A retired Hawke’s Bay beekeeper, Peter Berry, who worked in the industry for about 50 years, said the possibility of a wider outbreak was still worrying.
“If these things get away, the problem will be huge. And it won’t just be for the environment or for beekeepers, because they make life really unpleasant for anybody who bumps into them. People will die, and people will be severely injured by these things, and certainly lots and lots of people will be terrified.
“We really need to keep an eye out throughout the whole country because they are so easily spread.
“As I understand it, they’re fairly like the wasps we’re used to seeing that hibernate in lumps of firewood over the winter. If a queen wasp has got into one of those lumps of firewood, in the bumper of somebody’s car, or under a tarpaulin somewhere, then it could be anywhere in the country.”
He said the economic cost of a nationwide outbreak would be worse than anything he dealt with during his career.
“For the whole country, you’re probably talking billions of dollars lost.
“Wasps are bad enough. The German and the common wasp used to cost us when we were a business something like $100,000 a year.
“And when the number of those gets up in a rural environment, they just eat everything. And there’s nothing left for the birds to eat. So something a lot worse than them, that would be an absolute bloody disaster.”
He said harmful species entering the country was not ideal, but almost inevitable.
“We have gaps in our biosecurity the size of containers. A queen yellow-legged hornet is half the size of your little finger. And it’s very, very difficult to find something like that. Obviously better and cheaper to stop them in the first place, but without curtailing trade, it’s virtually impossible.”
“I’d love to have better biosecurity, but the main thing is if it gets here, that they do something about it.”
A yellow-legged hornet trap. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The government had committed $12m to cover the cost of the hornet response until the end of June 2026.
Berry said that the investment was absolutely worth it.
“If you can catch it when it’s small and jump on it and spend millions of dollars to kill it while you’ve only got a couple of hundred of them, it’s an awful lot cheaper than ever trying to wipe out tens of thousands.
“I think they could possibly spend some more time trying to just check around over the whole of the country to make sure that there isn’t something popping up. But I think you’ll find that pretty well every beekeeper in the country will be looking.”
Fruit fly battle ongoing
In the central Auckland suburb of Mount Roskill, biosecurity staff were also trying to eradicate an obnoxious fruit fly from Australia.
Restrictions on the movement of fruit and vegetables are in place in the area after a single male Queensland fruit fly was found in a surveillance trap in January.
Kris Robb, the manager at Clyde Orchards, was hopeful that the fruit fly would not get to them in the South Island.
Clyde Orchards Manager, Kris Robb. Supplied
“It’s obviously concerning to the industry, but personally, I think we’ve got full faith in the processes in place to be able to contain it.
Our biosecurity measures are as strong as any country in the world. They do the best job they can to stop these incursions. It’s just unfortunate that the odd bug gets through. That’s a risk of a global economy.”
There have been 15 previous incursions of different fruit fly species in Auckland and Northland since 1996, and all have been successfully eradicated.
Queensland fruit fly. Supplied / Biosecurity New Zealand
In a statement to RNZ, Biosecurity said only a small number of pests made it through the border, and that this was the first time the yellow-legged hornet had been detected here.
“It is impossible to eliminate the risk of live organisms getting past the border without stopping all trade and travel – something that would be unacceptable to most New Zealanders.
“Even with fully closed borders, some pests and diseases would still reach New Zealand through natural means such as wind, ocean currents or migratory species. Because some risk will always exist, Biosecurity New Zealand’s approach is to reduce this to an acceptable level.”
It said there were multiple safeguards in place to stop harmful pests from getting into the country.
“Biosecurity New Zealand operates a multilayered defence system that works offshore, at the border, and within New Zealand to stop harmful pests from entering the country. The system includes strict import rules for potential risk goods (eg. produce), screening of cargo, passengers, mail and vessels, detector dog teams, and surveillance programmes, including more than 36,400 insect traps nationwide.
“High-risk sites such as ports and approved facilities that receive international cargo are routinely inspected. Any insects detected that could pose a biosecurity risk are tested and dealt with immediately.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand