Pouteria Blog

Today T went into Pie Slice and M went into Management Unit 1 to spray. Target species were moth, gorse, asparagus, tobacco and anything else in the pest plant family we encountered.  Actually, it was an excellent time of year to spot, and then spray, smilax.

We sprayed for around 2.5 hours each (until it was getting dark) but returned to our vehicle with a small amount of spray in each of our tanks and that is a testament to how much the area has improved over the current season.

M found a couple of decent sized moth early on and double pink flagged a couple of old hot spots (still giving) that are  familiar to her but not familiar to our Contractors: Wildwood. The pink flagging assists with hot spot identification for revisiting.  M also took her silkie to a few more old man gorse she came across. While spraying M, at one point, noticed a moth feather (i.e. the white fluffy wing on a moth seed) on the ground in front of her, which made her stop and look around, and on doing so M spotted a large vine, with pods high in a tree (see photo) which she controlled (broke and pasted). We will need a return journey with appropriate tools to collect those pods. At the base of the tree, it was clear that there had been pod drop either earlier in the season or in prior seasons, so this area is going to need regular revisiting for the foreseeable future. On our return visit we will take a bag to collect as much of the pod drop seed as we can.

T found a few small moth plants and tobacco while spraying, which he hand controlled. Once he finished in Pie Slice he when up into MU1 and sprayed around the trees on the ridgeline in Grasslands where historically there has been the odd moth plant and gorse.

ADD IN TRACK LOGS

ABBREVIATIONS

PATCHMOTH – patch of moth

MSMOTH – mid-sized moth

BIGMOTHPODS – big moth with pods

Our contractors have finished for the season and are having a well deserved break before we all start a new season in Spring. Technically our season ends 31 August, but we don't, generally, start back spraying until October or November, weather permitting.

What a season it has been and continues to be. We are in mid June and we have had some rain but also beautiful sunny warm days. Growth has barely slowed.

It's that time of year where the priority is hunting out any and all large moth plant that have been missed so as to prevent them flowering and podding early next season. This is a real needle in a haystack job and requires one to move slowly, stop frequently and scan constantly. When spraying we tend to look down. Hunting one spends most of ones time looking up. 

Today M started at Orapiu Road, above Ngai Tai, and headed down the Southern Boundary Track to Polygon A, before heading through Polygon B to Polygon C and then on to and around the Big Dope Plot before heading up Willow Valley and along the edge of Grasslands in Polygon R. M checked all the usual moth plant hot spots en route and controlled various pest plants encountered including moth, gorse, pampas, ginger and tobacco.  Three large moth growing high in trees (no pods) and one patch of mid sized moth were controlled. While multiple moth plants were found and controlled, overall the numbers, for this time in the season, were well down. That said, at the toe of the Ngai Tai slope just above the wetland, M spotted carpets of inch high juveniles. This amazing season has been, and continues to be, the gift that keeps on giving!

The first large moth was spotted in Polygon B, in a flagged area, but it was oh so challenging to spot as it was growing amongst vines of clematis and parsonsia. Close by, and in another flagged area, M found a tangle of smaller vines where most had been previously successfully controlled but two vines in the tangle had been missed - easy to do when there was 8-10 vines intertwined.

The second large moth was spotted in Polygon C in the wetland area on the south side of Four Corners (see photo). M walked past it initially and only spotted it from the far side of the wetland and had to work her way back to check if it was moth or not. In the same area M found and controlled a number of smaller vines and so pink flagged this area for future reference.

The third large moth was found in the valley on the north side of the Big Dope Plot.

Bait take summary:
Pink Upper Loop results: Red (all gone) = 20, Orange (half gone) = 2, Green (nothing gone) = 0
Pink Lower Loop results: Red (all gone) = 14, Orange (half gone) = 1, Green (nothing gone) = 1

Today, Friday 12th June 2026, JL and D did the first pulse of the year for the Pink Loops.

Photo credit: D; JL and D rearing to go!

Today we:
 Replenished all stations with fresh bait and peanut butter
 Restored a few flagging ribbons
 Renewed fading signage on blue triangles with sharpie
 Did lots of clearing of pathway, with lots of fallen vegetation from the last few storm events and also a lot of
growth due to the nice autumnal weather over the last few months.
 Recorded what we found on paper

Evidence of mouse and rat droppings were found in several stations (D1100, D1150, C1350).
There was a Weta using bait station B1250 as a Weta hotel.
Heard wekas calling in the reserve, which was a first for us over the last 2 years.

Very limited Tobacco Weed seedlings regrowth around D1350, we tried pulled out as much as we could see..
Asparagus Fern regrowth observed between D950 and D1150.

Photo credit: JL; Good amount of fungi observed throughout the loop.

Pink Loop passes by the Wobbly Wood, this was Volunteer D's first pass through the Wobbly Wood D commented:  "Quite a large area of Kanuka on B Line, that were at least 50-75 years old. All had seemingly been bent hard to the South when young - but not enough to prevent them curling back to vertical. Our theories were either a single strong storm or possibly land movement around a fan. Alien landing, of course, another possibility"  See photo below and prior blog post: Amazing Nature! The mystery of Wobbly Wood

Photo credit: D; Wobbly Wood trees.

That's a pretty impressive result team! Some areas (mainly the moth plant hot spot polygons) had multiple visits as its been one exceptional growing season!