Combatants in the war against the coconut rhinoceros beetle on the Big Island said Wednesday night that their fight is still an effort to eradicate the pest on Hawaii Island, as opposed to managing the spread, as is being done on Oahu.
Dexter Kishida, state Department of Transportation food security and biosecurity manager, called the beetle battle a “kakou effort.” His comments came during an online town hall hosted by state Sen. Tim Richards, Reps. David Tarnas and Nicole Lowen, and County Councilman James Hustace.
“We need all eyes. We need all hands. That’s the way we are going to be able to beat the beetle in Kona,” Kishida said.
In recent weeks, about 140 tons of of biomaterial tabbed as a potential breeding site for the CRB were fumigated and hauled away from a plant nursery in Keahole Agricultural Park near the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport.
“Within seven days, we organized a multiagency operation to include Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, the county and DOT Highways and Airports,” said Keith Weiser, a scientist and invasive pest management expert for the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii.
“We fumigated, then moved about 3,000 cubic yards of that green waste to West Hawaii Organic Facility.”
Kamran Fujimoto, the Hawaii Island noxious weed specialist for the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, said his “team of three amazing volunteers” — all state hires on 89-day contracts — “stepped up to the plate when we said CRB has reached Kona.”
“They handle the chemicals, they mix and they pull the trigger,” Fujimoto said.
Fujimoto also thanked Mayor Kimo Alameda and county Department of Public Works Acting Director Neil Azevedo for their cooperation.
“They essentially told me, ‘Whatever you need, we got you,’” he said, “So they afforded … us the use of their 35-foot boom truck and their 70-foot boom truck when we need them. That allowed me to get up into the crowns of the trees to apply … treatments. In the Kona area, we did 1,800-plus coconut crowns … from north as far as West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery. … Our south boundary was the Honokohau marina.”
“The crown treatments are the quickest,” Fujimoto continued. “If the beetle is there, within 20 to 30 minutes after our pesticide application the beetle will be dead. If they show up within three to four months and take a bite of that tree, the beetle will be affected. So we’ve got roughly, to date, about 2,000 trees.”
Frannie Brewer, manager of the Big Island Invasive Species Committee, said the first adult beetle in Kona was found in a trap in March.
“We did a big trap deployment in the area and started to pick up more adult beetles throughout that Kona airport, bottom of Kaiminani area. And that has basically just continued …,” Brewer said. “We have been picking up a lot of adults in those traps. It’s important to remember that the traps are detection devices. These traps are not meant to be a control device. The traps just indicate to us that there are adult beetles in the area. That does not mean that that’s a breeding site. It does indicate that an adult got there.”
Weiser said it’s not only the Big Island’s niu, or coconut palms, that are endangered by the CRB.
“It’s also royal palms, date palms, fan palms are some of their favorite foods, and this includes endemic Hawaiian palms, the loulu — which are protected in some areas and very low population, so it’s very important to protect those — but also other food sources in Hawaii, like banana, sugar cane, hala, important plants like kalo (and) pineapple,” he said. “These have been tested in a lab setting, so these are considered potential native hosts, but there are a number of other Native Hawaiian plants that could be imperiled by CRB.”
Weiser said those battling the beetle are still in the fight.
“Public notice of an invasive species usually doesn’t really take hold, people don’t really start to notice … until they see specific damage — and that’s usually pretty late in an invasion. And we’re not there … and we already have public awareness,” he said. “… So being here in that eradication area and having public awareness is going to help us tremendously.
“That puts us in a better position than Oahu, where it’s really been an uphill battle.”
Frannie Brewer, manager of the Big Island Invasive Species Committee, said her group and partners have laid “a pretty thorough trap network across the island.”
“Even though, right now, we’ve only had detections in Kona, we are concerned that … we could have another introduction,” Brewer said. “And we’re also concerned that something could move from Kona in a potted plant or something like that … into another area. So we have a wide network of traps. We’re still expanding that with partners. We do have an online database that you can go to.”
Brewer added there are plans for “some low-flying helicopter surveys on Oct. 14 in the Kona area.
“If you see that low-flying aircraft, they’re not coming for you,” she said. “This is purely collecting information to be involved in CRB response.”
Fujimoto urged the public to be proactive.
“We need you to be our eyes on the ground. We are in Hilo. We can’t be everywhere at once,” he said. “But once we get the info on where the damaged trees are, we can get everything around it protected.”
Suspected beetles and larvae infestation, as well affected trees and green waste can be reported on the BIISC website at https://www.biisc.org/pest/coconut-rhinoceros-beetle/.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.