 Exotic pests are around us and more are coming here in the western suburbs of Perth we are fighting an invasion and it's happening in everyone's backyard and it's destroying the products of our beautiful garden. It's the Queensland fruit fly. We have all seen this in the news recently haven't we? Because just a few weeks ago 15,000 properties in the western suburbs of Perth have been quarantined to deal with this outbreak. I used to get organic lines from Susanna and Alkit and do the best margaritas ever trust me. But I won't get them this year because she had to trash all of her fruits so let me tell you I do have a problem with this pest. But it's not the only case some pests are not as visible from our perspective. They move on the water and they don't make much noise but they're even a bigger problem than the ones on land. The invasive mosquito fish is one of the hundred world worst invasive pests. It colonizes rivers and lakes globally. So let me tell you what happens when two other fishes, when this pest arrives, their tail gets bitten off. They cannot swim nor feed properly and infections occur. Yeah it's not isn't it? So you might not be surprised that they quickly die leading behind more space and resources for mosquito fish to flourish. This is happening now in the city lake near bio house as in the most remote and pristine river of WA. And the thing is methods to eradicate this pest don't exist. So the real question is is there anything that we can do then wait for things to get worse? Technology offers us tools that we never had before. Tools that might be invaluable for fighting pests. I am a biologist and I work with mechanical and aerospace engineers. Together we made the mosquito fish's worst nightmare became real. It's a robotic fish that mimics the characteristics of super predators in North America that have successfully controlled mosquito fish for centuries. And here it is. It looks like a $3 toy that my daughter would play with but it's actually much more. It acts like a bodyguard for the native species and as a predator for the invasive pest. So picture this. You're a little fish and the jaws like predator is coming for you. It's not fun. It doesn't need them if that's what you're wondering. It does something better. It scares them and stress them to a point that it alters their behavior permanently. They quickly lose weight and the capacity to breathe and live longer. So with a brief and localized action we can have large effects that pass from fish to fish and have the potential to collapse the entire population. How cool is that? Hopefully soonish we might have a variety of options to fight with several pests and hopefully look after our lives.