New Zealand

Australian pest weevil may be in NZ

21:27 pm on 18 January 2015

A 10-year-old girl from the Rangitikei town of Marton has discovered an exotic pest in an imported mango she bought at a local shop.

Hannah Trow came across the Australian mango seed weevil as she cracked open mango pips on Saturday.

"I was opening a mango seed and there was like all this dirt stuff in it and a bug crawled out so I killed it, and there was another one and I put it in a jar and I looked on the internet to see what type it was and it was a mango seed weevil."

She said she tried to contact biosecurity officials about her find by email but had yet to hear anything back.

The Ministry for Primary Industries said it was now investigating the incident.