The recent outbreak of the coconut tree-destroying rhinoceros beetle has agricultural authorities in Samoa worried. 

Senior Entomologist Fuifatu Billy Enosa, of the Nu’u Crop Station, says the country could lose millions of talas worth of coconut production if the beetle problem is not addressed.

“This is especially worrying as the country is experiencing a coconut production comeback,” he said. 

“And the coconut beetle has the potential to devastate coconut plantations.”

There are some 2000 coconut farmers in the country. Coconut exports last year amounted to $7.2 million tala. 

The latest outbreak, Fuifatu said, is due to an increasing number of breeding sites for the beetle, which attacks the crowns of coconut trees.

Adult beetles cause damage by burrowing into the crown of the palm to feed internally on the soft unfurled palm leaves. This weakens the tree and affects its ability to bear fruit. If not treated, it could kill it.

Severely affected parts of the country include plantations in Mulifanua and Vaitele on Upolu and Taga and Pu’apu’a in Savai’i.

“The areas in Savaii are particularly affected because of the presence of sawmills there which offers ideal breeding habitats for the pest,” Fuifatu said.

“At the moment we are also working with the sawmill owners to combat the problem.’

Decomposing trees felled by cyclones also affords ideal sites for the beetle to lay its eggs.

The robust shiny black beetle, measuring 3-5 centimetres long, also lay their eggs in dead palm trees and tree trunks, stunted undergrowth, rubbish heaps, piles of compost and sawdust.

The beetle, when matured, can fly over long distances including over short stretches of sea. 

“At the moment there are less than 10 people working against the beetles,” Fuifatu said.

“We need at least 20 teams of 10 people involved, 10 in Savaii and 10 in Upolu.

The men clear the land of possible breeding sites, but their small numbers has really hampered much progress.

Launching an offence against the beetle the Agricultural Ministry, with funding and technical assistance from the SPC Plant Protection Service in Suva, has embarked on a national public awareness programmes calling on village authorities for their involvement in addressing the problem in their localities.

The programme includes a series of advertisements in newspapers, talkback radio sessions and a stint on the popular TV Samoa development programme Atina’e Samoa. 

“In the past, the beetle was controlled due to a community approach to the problem,’ he said.

“When whole villages went out and cleared their land of possible larvae breeding sites, collected and destroyed the beetles.”

The Crop Division has also employed other measures to combat the problem. This is through the introduction of bio-control agents and setting up of beetle traps.

A virus and a fungus, under a sustained and controlled eradication regime, have been successful in reducing beetle populations for many years.  Seventy to eighty percent of beetle populations are controlled through the use of biological control.

The crew is also setting up traps at strategic areas to capture the beetles. The traps are sawdust treated with special chemicals that attract the pest. Members of the public are urged not to disturb the traps.

Under the Rhinoceros Beetle Ordinance of 1954, those found using the pest in acts of sabotage is liable to a prison sentence or a hefty fine.

The control efforts have been funded though the assistance grant from the Secretariat of Pacific Communities, formerly the South Pacific Commission.