Farmers Worry Hawaiʻi's Prized Trees Are At Risk

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Have you heard of the Queensland longhorn beetle?

Unlike the coconut rhinoceros beetle, which has now spread throughout the state but mostly just targets coconut trees, this lesser-known invasive beetle is threatening to eat its way through a laundry list of Hawaiʻi’s most prized trees after years of isolated-but-devastating impacts on Hawaiʻi island farms.

Invasive species experts fear the Queensland longhorn beetle could spread statewide without additional focus and funding.

Farmers are generally pessimistic about the state helping.

That sentiment stems from the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity’s track record of failing to stop the coconut rhinoceros beetle.

Farmers from Kurtistown in Puna to Honokaʻa more than 50 miles north are familiar with most pests and how to deal with them, but less is known about the Queensland longhorn beetle.

The beetle is not invasive in other parts of the world so it hasn’t been researched as much as the coconut rhinoceros beetles that plague Hawai‘i, a longtime focus of researchers across the Asia-Pacific region.

The Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo developed one of the few controls the farmers have to combat the Queensland beetle.

It involves using locally sourced nematodes — microscopic worms — that seek out larvae in trees and kill them.

But demand has outpaced how much the U.S. Department of Agriculture research center and local invasive species committee can produce.

The federal government recognized the Queensland beetle’s potential threat to the almost $3 billion American citrus and hardwood industries.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz sounded the alarm in 2019 in a letter to the USDA and Department of the Interior.