News

Congratulations to Reid Emery, who has been named the 2025 Student Award Winner by the Entomological Society of Queensland (ESQ) for his Honours project on insect monitoring in macadamia orchards.

Reid’s research, Optimisation of drop-sheet sampling in macadamia orchards, focused on understanding orchard arthropod populations as a critical element of making strategic decisions around pest management. In macadamias, current sampling strategies are limited and no single method reliably captures all the species present.

Drop-sheet sampling – where insects are dislodged from trees onto a sheet for counting – has shown promise as a more comprehensive approach, but it still needs refinement before it can be used as a standardised method across the industry. As part of his Honours project, Reid investigated how factors such as sheet size, sample time and the level of effort required influence both the accuracy of insect representation and the efficiency of the process.

The findings of this study give the macadamia industry an opportunity to move towards a standardised drop-sheeting method. This would enable researchers and industry entomologists to capture a full picture of orchard insect ecology with greater accuracy, while also minimising time and effort.

This is a valuable step toward strengthening Integrated Pest Management in macadamias, with the potential to help growers make more informed, cost-effective decisions.

The ESQ Student Award was established to encourage and recognise outstanding entomological research at Queensland universities. Reid’s win highlights not only his commitment but also the importance of ongoing research to improve pest management, productivity and sustainability for macadamia growers.