Newsletter: 4th ALERT! CBB Very Serious

COFFEE BERRY BORER

(Hypothenemus hampei)

The adult Coffee Berry Beetles are 1.4-1.7 mm in length, smaller than a sesame seed. The females bore into the berry through the blossom end of the fruit, leaving an entrance hole. White fungus is sometimes visible around the hole. The females will lay their eggs in the berry. Larvae eat their way through the flesh and the bean, destroying the entire fruit. This little beetle has become the most damaging pest in the worldwide coffee industry.

At this point and time this pest is here to stay and it is not a matter of eradicating this menace but to monitor and take means to control this beetle that it will not destroy the entire Kona and Hawaii Island coffee crops. Anyone who has the least bit of coffee growing on their property must take action to control this pest before it spreads even more heavily or deeply into the coffee crops throughout.

There are a couple of different ways to start to control this pest; either all-ready bought or home made traps with the pertinent attractants used can eliminate some of beetles and spraying fungicides is another. Another measure, but considered a drastic measure is picking up and burning all fallen crop from the ground and/or cutting out the entire effected area of your coffee farm and burning this. However of course this will effect your production of coffee for the season, and for the next several years till the trees have grown again to considerable size to produce crop. But some of these measures taken now will assure a better control and possible larger unaffected crops in the future. The key is to monitor your coffee fields for this pest and apply measures to control it on a continuous basis with measures that is within the rules and regulations of the Department of Agriculture. For additional information you can access the web at

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/site/CBBManage.aspx

ECONOMICAL SELF-MADE BROCA TRAP

Traps can be inexpensive to make for the use on the coffee farms and most effective is to begin placing traps around the perimeters of your property, 20 to 40 feet apart to be able to contain those pests that my be invading your farm from an adjacent parcel. Of course the more you are able to place throughout your farm the better results you will obtain.

The items that are used to make a trap are some of those supplies that you probably may have already laying around your home. This supply consists of the following items, a plastic liquid detergent bottle, 4 oz. lotion bottle, bailing wire, #12 bag string and a gallon or quart glass lure compound bottle. Some of the tools needed to assemble the trap are a small saw, pocket knife, wire cutters, drill and a 5/32 inch drill bit.

For further information and help to make these traps you can contact Kona Pacific Farmers Coop at (808) 328-2411.