What were the pests that invaded the crops?

 

There were many pests the destroyed the crops, they include awheto, awhato, hotete and anuhe, a huge caterpillar in which they appeared in large groups. The unfortunate task of collecting and killing these pests took large amounts of time. The Ngati-Porou applied the terms ngurengure and tungoungou to certain insects, but torongu and tupeke are the pests in the Bay of Plenty district. The native rat cause very little harm to the the crops but the damage rate of crops became higher after the norway rat was introduced.