Effort to eradicate beetle shifts west

State agricultural pest officials are refocusing efforts to eradicate a beetle that has touched off the deaths of more than 100 coconut and palm trees on Oahu, shifting traps to an area stretching to Nanakuli from Iroquois Point.

In Nanakuli, officials are also continuing efforts to detect the coconut rhinoceros beetle’s nesting areas.

Darcy Oishi, the biological control section chief, said pest control workers have found nearly 40 coconut rhinoceros beetles in the Nanakuli area since the first one surfaced on Jan. 14.

Since the beetle was first discovered in a pest survey trap at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in late 2013, state pest control officials have found nearly 3,000 of the insects on Oahu.

The coconut rhinoceros beetle bores into the center of the crown of the coconut or palm tree, injuring young tissue to the point where it can die.

At a news conference held Wednesday by the state Department of Agriculture’s Plant Quarantine Branch in Honolulu, Oishi said state pest workers have been going door to door in the past few months, asking Nanakuli residents to examine green waste in their yards to check for nesting areas with large larvae.

Workers have been unable to find any nesting areas in Nanakuli, Oishi said.

More than 100 coconut and palms trees affected by the coconut rhinoceros beetle on Oahu have been cut down, including three in Nanakuli, he said.