Nigel Douglas says unwanted organisms such as bottled snakes and other imported creepy-crawlies are not wanted in Queenstown. Photo by Jude Gillies.

Queenstown airport biosecurity boss Nigel Douglas is always looking for things he hopes he will not find.

The Maf biosecurity quarantine officer heads the border control team faced with making sure the thousands of international passengers who arrive each year do not bring unwanted organisms into our region or the country.

It's his job to make sure the Wakatipu does not get another didymo or anything worse, that could threaten the environment or the economy.

It is a task that has grown with passenger numbers and is set to increase as international flights to Queenstown pick up and people continue to push the boundaries of what they are allowed to bring into New Zealand.

Mr Douglas said while he loved the job, he was also acutely aware of the need to make sure travellers respected and observed regulations.

To date, he has intercepted plenty of risky organic material, including fruit, food products, mud-caked boots and tramping equipment, redback spiders and cockroaches that "pop out of bags".

But it's not just cockroaches at the airport he is looking for.

Mr Douglas also checks sea containers being unloaded in the Wakatipu and has encountered geckoes still running around inside the packed goods that then require fumigation.

While fumigation might kill unwanted lizards and insects, it did not stop fungus or seeds getting into the country, he said.

Wakatipu Department of Conservation community relations officer Trish Gill said although Doc did not have a dedicated biosecurity risk mitigation team, "there are systems in place to identify flora and fauna that could bring a biosecurity risk to our own flora and fauna".