HONOLULU (KHON2) — Researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa are looking into a type of virus to control and eradicate the coconut rhinoceros beetle, and preliminary findings are promising.
Hawaii showing signs of beetle spread but battle isn’t over
The Department of Land and Natural Resources lists nudiviruses as an important family of viruses for biocontrol and has been successfully used in parts of Asia and the Pacific to control coconut rhinoceros beetle populations.
“People who are researching this knew that if you looked at enough strains in the wild, you could probably find one that is a match to the beetles in Hawaii,” said Keith Weiser, UH CRB Response deputy incident commander.
Dr. Mike Melzer and other researchers with UH’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAR) believe they might have found a match and are currently running trials on CRB in the larval stage locally…