The county is preparing to go after breeding sites as the invasive species spreads across the island.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The nearly 100-year-old Wailua Municipal Golf Course is home to more than 580 coconut trees. It\u2019s also one of Kaua\u2018i\u2019s most visible sites for coconut rhinoceros beetle damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Located makai of K\u016bhi\u014d Highway, trees that would normally have full, verdant leaves are dull and have V-shaped cuts in their fronds. Some are bare and look more like matchsticks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not for lack of trying to mitigate the invasive pest. The trees\u2019 crowns have been sprayed with a pesticide twice, and the trunks were injected twice with a systemic pesticide for longer term protection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Kaua\u2018i Department of Parks & Recreation maintains that even though the trees still look damaged, the treatments are working. Staff have collected 1,679 fallen, dead adult beetles over the last three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Damaged](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260120-kf-Kauai-CRB-0093-1024x682.jpg\")
The Kaua\u2018i Department of Parks & Recreation injected roughly 580 coconut trees at Wailua Municipal Golf Course with a systemic pesticide in June 2024 and January 2025. Earlier treatments were applied in 2023 with drones and in partnership with the state Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n
The most recent treatment, a systemic pesticide that travels through the trees\u2019 vascular systems, was done in January 2025. While crown sprays kill the beetle on contact, systemic pesticides require the beetles to feed from the trees to die. The bugs eat the trees\u2019 hearts \u2014 where new fronds develop \u2014 so it can take months for foliage damage to appear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe general public sees these trees that are damaged and thinks, \u2018Oh my goodness they\u2019re getting whacked,\u2019 but in actuality, we need them to get whacked to kill (the beetles),\u201d said Patrick Porter, county parks director.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But with the beetles continuing to spread around the island, the county is increasingly turning its attention to green waste, mulch piles and other breeding sites, where beetles spend four to six months growing from eggs to adults. A single adult female beetle can lay up to 140 eggs in her lifetime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is if you don\u2019t go after the larvae and you don\u2019t go after your mulch cycle, you\u2019re just pissing in the wind,\u201d said Kaua\u2018i County Council member Fern Holland. \u201cBecause there are just going to be hundreds and hundreds of them hatching all the time, and you can\u2019t go after all of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Squirt Guns, Bait Traps And Steam<\/p>\n
Once a week, Holland can be seen outside her Kapahi home using a water gun to spray her palm trees\u2019 crowns with basil oil and soap. Occasionally, a friend will climb her trees to apply sand and salt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While she knows her methods won\u2019t actually kill the beetle, they might still prevent it from damaging her beloved trees, several of which were planted by her late boyfriend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But she\u2019s starting to lose that fight. She first noticed CRB-damaged palms in her neighborhood over the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn biosecurity crises such as this where there\u2019s, like, not a lot of ways to kill them, I\u2019m like, \u2018Am I just scaring them into my neighbor\u2019s yard?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Kaua\u02bbi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260120-kf-Kauai-CRB-0005-1024x682.jpg\")
Kaua\u02bbi County Council member Fern Holland shows the damage coconut rhinoceros beetles have done to her Samoan coconut tree. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n
Holland, chair of the council\u2019s Parks & Recreation\/Transportation Committee, has been working with the county and others to address CRB. Currently, their efforts focus on bait traps at the Wailua Municipal Golf Course, a popular course supported by taxpayer dollars, and at some of the county\u2019s refuse transfer stations to attract the beetles to designated green waste piles that will then be regularly steamed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The County Council recently accepted on behalf of the parks department a donation of in-kind services from Mr. Lance\u2019s Steam<\/a> \u2014 worth $11,790 \u2014 to steam treat eight green waste piles totaling 262 cubic yards at the Wailua course.\u00a0<\/p>\n Porter anticipates that the parks department will later pursue a long-term contract for regular steaming of its green waste piles.\u00a0<\/p>\n Static, coned-off green waste piles will be set up at the L\u012bhu\u2018e and Hanap\u0113p\u0113 transfer stations. Keola Aki, solid waste manager, said the Solid Waste Division will need to first get a permit from the state to do this since the designated piles will sit at the facilities. Currently, material is hauled out of those facilities every month.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n Kaua\u02bbi Reader Survey\n <\/p>\n Have you experienced trash pickup delays?<\/p>\n \n Delays have recently become more common. We want to hear how this has affected your household.\n <\/p>\n \n (We won\u2019t share your name without getting your permission first).\n <\/p>\n Last May, the County Council allocated $100,000 for invasive species and another $100,000 for CRB. It was the first time the county designated funds specifically to address the beetle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Niki Kunioka-Volz, economic development specialist with the Kaua\u2018i Office of Economic Development, said none of that funding has been spent yet. They\u2019re considering using it to help get the breeding site at the Wailua golf course under control, such as by purchasing an air curtain burner, a fan-powered incinerator of sorts to dispose of green waste. The burner could also be a tool for the broader community.\u00a0<\/p>\n The county, she said, needs to get a handle on the golf course to help slow the beetles\u2019 spread on the Eastside.\u00a0<\/p>\n Holland said she plans to pursue more county funding for CRB this year. She said the county\u2019s ability to respond to CRB is limited because biosecurity is a state-level responsibility, adding that it also needs more support than it\u2019s been getting.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, the county received $200,000 from the state Department of Agriculture. That money was used for a CRB outreach campaign, training CRB detection dogs and distributing deterrent materials. State funding was also expected to help the county purchase a curtain burner, but that plan fell through.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this month, state legislators threatened to cut invasive species funding<\/a> from the newly expanded Hawai\u2018i Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity over its slow progress in curbing threats such as coconut rhinoceros beetles.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to see the pressure put on them to release the funds to the counties,\u201d Holland said.<\/p>\n \u2018They\u2019re Essentially Everywhere Now\u2019<\/p>\n Some of the Wailua golf course\u2019s trees have died, though Porter didn\u2019t know how many. Some may have just been too damaged by the time they were treated; others may have already been in declining health.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Porter said he doesn\u2019t think systemic injections are a long-term solution because each shot creates a wound in the trunk.\u00a0<\/p>\n Additionally, while the department was able to use its in-house chemical operator, he said each round of injections for the 582 trees costs about $30,000 for equipment and chemicals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some community members oppose the use of chemical pesticides because they can harm pollinators and the surrounding environment. Coconut trees, or niu, are also a culturally significant tree<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Indrajit Gunasekara, co-founder of Niu Now, a community group focused on saving old Hawaiian coconut genetic diversity, questioned whether the Wailua golf course treatments were working. In November, he saw emerging fronds with signs of new CRB attacks. He also saw over 400 trees with their flowers still attached. Flowers are supposed to be removed from injected trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gunasekara had conducted a field survey of 1,200 coconut trees across 40 randomly assigned blocks of 30 trees between Kekaha to H\u0101\u2018ena on Nov. 13 and 14. His goal was to identify how far CRB had spread and the damage it was causing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Heavy CRB damage was observed in L\u012bhu\u2018e-Wailua, Wailua Homesteads and Kal\u0101heo, and it appeared the beetle had been in those areas for longer than a year, based on the age of damaged fronds. Hanap\u0113p\u0113 and Anahola had more minor damage, and beetles appeared to have been present in those areas for three months.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gunasekara said one of the main findings was that there\u2019s still hope, and coordinated community efforts can slow or reverse the beetles\u2019 spread. He emphasized that his survey was very limited and meant to spark discussions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hanap\u0113p\u0113 resident Chris Ka\u2018iakapu said he hopes the findings encourage the broader community to get involved in eliminating CRB and plant more coconut groves.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019d also like to see more regulations around stockpiling green waste and more agricultural burning of green waste. According to the state Department of Health, there are two current Kaua\u2018i applications for agricultural burning specifically related to CRB. Approvals are pending site visits.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ka\u2018iakapu has been using salt and sand to deter CRB from his own coconut trees, as well as those of others in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe know they\u2019re essentially everywhere now,\u201d he said. \u201cI just had a detection in Kekaha, in Pakal\u0101, and people aren\u2019t really aware.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n <\/a><\/p>\n![\"Coconut](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/250306-dc-Colonizing-CRB-3589-1024x683.jpg\")
Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle was first detected on Kaua\u2018I in May 2023. Larvae can grow up to 3\u201d and crawl on their side. (David Croxford\/Civil Beat\/2025)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260120-kf-Kauai-CRB-0105-1024x682.jpg\")
A sign of coconut rhinoceros beetle damage is evident in Kaua\u02bbi County Council member Fern Holland\u2019s tree. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n
![\"Tobias](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/CRB-loulu-McBryde-Garden-Kauai-Jan2026-1024x768.jpg\")
Tobias Koehler, director of National Tropical Botanical Garden\u2019s McBryde and Allerton gardens, points to a loulu palm collected from Moloka\u2018i that is recovering from coconut rhinoceros beetle damage. (Noelle Fujii-Oride\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n![\"Civil](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753322412_339_logo10.png\"){kind=logo}
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