Dr Mary Whitehouse is a behavioural ecologist who has: demonstrated the effect of experience in spider contests; developed models on sociality using spiders; and applied Lanchester’s “theory of combat” to ant wars. More recently, she has worked extensively on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in cropping systems, particularly cotton, exploring predator/prey interactions and invertebrate community composition. For example, she has studied the effect of intraguild predation on pest control, and the positive ramifications of changes in transgenic Bt cotton communities on pest management. She has also worked in resistance management of the Helicoverpa moth, including how epigenetics, in-season genetic dilution, and between season quarantining can affect the development of resistance.

She is now applying her knowledge of IPM to other industries and environments, such as Australian urban environments, the New Zealand pastural system, and currently, the hemp, macadamia, pollination and beekeeping industries. In particular, she is focused on the management of Varroa mites. Varroa has been devastating to beekeeping internationally, but it has only recently arrived in Australia. Mary currently leads a team working with apiarists to identify novel, non-insecticidal control methods that could be developed for Australian conditions and used in an IPM framework to stop the development of resistance by Varroa mites to control.