The Big Island Invasive Species Committee is ramping up surveillance after detecting a coconut rhinoceros beetle in Hilo.
The beetle was found dead in a trap near Hilo International Airport on Monday.
BIISC Program Manager Franny Brewer said her team has since checked every other trap in Hilo. So far, no other beetles have been discovered.
“That’s a good indication … we're not seeing a ton of other beetle activity as we did in Kona,” Brewer said to HPR.
Hawaiʻi Island’s west side has been battling an outbreak of coconut rhinoceros beetles for over a year. Beetles and larvae have been detected along a roughly 20-mile stretch from downtown Kailua-Kona up to Kīholo Bay.
In March, the state Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity approved containment measures to limit the movement of beetle host materials — mulch, compost, tree chips, etc. — out of those affected areas. Brewer said no new beetle detections have occurred outside of that containment zone in recent months.
“The border has not expanded in a minute, which is good news,” she said.
But Brewer said this latest discovery could indicate that the beetles have a foothold in Hilo. Her team has been setting up additional traps and using specially trained dogs to try to sniff out signs of a CRB breeding population in the area.
It is also possible that this is a lone hitchhiker that was inadvertently brought over from Oʻahu or another CRB-infected area.
“I'm being optimistic because I would really like for that to be the case, but it's a wait and see right now, and the seeing is really the part that we're focused on,” Brewer said.
Hilo had another isolated CRB incident last year. A beetle was found dead in a retail store next to a display of bagged mulch and soil. Those materials are known vectors for CRB, and Brewer said it had likely come from Oʻahu.
