Besting the Big Island's beetles, ‘too late' for others?

Yahoo

13-04-2025

KAILUA, Hawaii (KHON2) — The invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle continues to wreak havoc on Oahu's trees, recent detections also raised concerns on the Big Island but early efforts appear to be working, at least on Hawaii Island.
Mulch mishap spurs corrective action in Oahu beetle battle
Over a half dozen coconut rhinoceros beetles were found near Kona airport in March in an area where the critters have never been detected. Officials say damage to trees in Kona has not yet been reported but there are hundreds of palms around the airport facility.
'People coming into Kona Airport and seeing just dead palms. It's not a very welcoming sight. We really don't want to get to that point,' said Franny Brewer, Big Island Invasive Species Committee program manager.
'All hands on deck, deploy more traps, get more community surveys just so that we can find all those breeding sites and hopefully get down,' said Hawaii Department of Agriculture Plant Quarantine Branch Manager Jonathan Ho. 'And that's why you're seeing, I think, what, 260 trees so far treated in the surrounding area.'
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The trees around Kona's airport have either been treated with a pesticide spray up in the crown or an injection down near the base. The Big Island Invasive Species Committee said its latest detection involved a single beetle that was found dead in a trap after a treatment had been applied.
'We think it's a possibility that she had fed on one of the treated palms and then flown into the trap,' Brewer said.
HDOA officials said they are cautiously optimistic about the Big Island situation and added eradication is not out of the question. Area representatives on other islands said they have a different story, however.
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'So for Oahu and Kauai, it's actually too late for that. Our hope in places like Oahu is just to manage it until we can get a bio control,' said Rep. Lisa Marten.
Marten helps to maintain Hamakua Marsh in Kailua and puts up nets that help trap beetles when they try to burrow into palms. The bio control idea is something the University of Hawaii is currently looking into in order to find a virus that will target coconut rhinoceros beetles while leaving native species alone.
'And then once we find something that is effective then it could be released to the wild and the beetles themselves would spread it in the population and keep the populations down, which is something that's happening, for example, in South Asia,' she said.
for more info on traps. for more info on sprays and injections.
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