Vigilance required to fight invasive critters and plants

Imagine a Waikiki with considerably fewer coconut palm trees.

If the coconut rhinoceros beetle, a native of Southeast Asia, establishes a population in Waikiki, that could become a very real scenario, according to Rob Curtiss, acting plant pest control branch manager for the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Or envision a Waikiki where little fire ants, native to South America, establish colonies up in the palms and rain down on visitors when breezes disturb the fronds, the ants’ stings leaving a painful rash for weeks.

"Either one would be devastating in different ways," he said.

Before Tropical Storm Iselle unleashed its wrath on the Big Island, a bill that would have allocated $5 million to eliminate invasive albizia trees along key East Hawaii roads didn’t make it out of committee. Now that the trees toppled power lines, you can bet it will be near the top of legislators’ lists.

Scientists from the state Agriculture Department and the U.S. Forest Service had already been waging a battle against albizias for more than a decade before the storm hit. Besides snapping like matchsticks during a storm, albizias crowd out native habitats, overwhelming native ohia lehua trees.

Getting the message about the potential destruction of invasives across to the public is a challenge, said Curtiss, who advocates a proactive approach before a disaster hits.

Take the little fire ants, or Wasmannia auropunctata.

They were first discovered in Puna on the Big Island in 1999. This summer, small infestations were detected on Oahu at nurseries in Waimanalo and, most recently, Mililani Mauka. The ants may have been in Mililani for several years.

"When it was in Waimanalo, people thought it was a ‘Nalo problem," said Curtiss. "When it was in Mililani, people thought it was a Mililani problem. It’s not just a Mililani or ‘Nalo problem. It’s everyone’s problem."

The state is surveying high-risk areas and encouraging the public to do the "peanut butter test." Place sticks with a thin smear of peanut butter every few feet in and around your plants, leave in place for an hour and check for very small orange-red ants.

Visit www.LFAHawaii.org to learn more.

Public vigilance is critical.

Who knows where the ants will strike next?

The ants, the size of the point of a ballpoint pen (one-sixteenth of an inch), can travel via all kinds of household goods, not just hapuu ferns or plants.

ALBIZIAS are not the only invasive tree the state needs to worry about.

For Curtiss, the top five invasive trees of concern are the albizia, strawberry guava, Christmasberry (also known as Brazilian pepper), African tulip and octopus tree.

The strawberry guava smothers Hawaii’s native forests, reducing the amount of water flowing to our aquifers and potentially spreading fruit flies to vulnerable crops.

As if that weren’t enough, an average of 20 new invasive species are established in Hawaii every year, according to Curtiss, though not all are injurious.

The Green Leaf blog (thegreenleaf.staradvertiserblogs.com) will feature a series on top invasive species starting Monday.

To report a suspected pest, call the Hawaii Department of Agriculture’s pest hotline at 643-PEST (7378).

Nina Wu writes about environmental issues. Reach her at nwu@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter @ecotraveler.