Case Study: Ship Quarantined At West Swanston Dock

The Problem

Dawson’s Australia was contacted recently by a cargo ship’s agent that had been notified by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) that the ship had been quarantined under Biosecurity.

They required Dawson’s Australia to attend a vessel at the West Swanson Dock terminal that had been found to have an unknown insect pest on board.

The Dawson’s team was onboard the vessel within 2 hours of the call to confirm the scope of the works.

The pest was unidentifiable as a Biosecurity officer from the DAFF had already collected samples. We were instructed to capture any specimens that we encountered whilst on board.

Australia has strict Biosecurity controls to help minimise the risk of pests and diseases entering the country to protect our environment and agricultural industry.

The Solution

Three of our technicians applied a residual treatment of all external decks throughout and under cargo areas. DAFF requested both a residual insecticide treatment and hot-pyrethrum fogging. This treatment was used as insect eggs are impervious to pesticides, and a residual insecticide is required to kill them once they have hatched.

The technicians completed the treatment with a pyrethrum thermal fogging treatment of the entire upper deck of the vessel and cargo area.

The Treatment Process

• An initial inspection was conducted of the deck and cargo gangways.
• The residual treatment was applied to all accessible surfaces throughout the gangways and deck level. This process involved 145 litres of product and took 3 technicians roughly 4 hours to complete.
• Upon completion of the residual insecticide, Thermal fogging was applied underneath the shipping containers and throughout all deck areas. Thermal Foggers use heat to vaporise a fogging solution into a smoke/fog. This allowed us to treat beneath the shipping containers without physically being able to access them.

Dawson’s Australia is here to help

Dawson’s Australia are The Pest Professionals no matter where you have a pest problem. Our team are ready to assist you wherever we’re needed.

Call the pest control professionals at Dawson’s Australia on (03) 9222 2266 or fill out our contact form online.