Hawaii
Virus to fight coconut rhinoceros beetle shows promising results – West Hawaii Today
Every other day inside a lab on the third floor of the St. John Plant Science Laboratory building on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus, doctoral student Kristen Gaines opens up a refrigerator full of beetle larvae, hoping to find them dead.
“When I see a dead one, it’s still pretty gratifying,” she said.
Gaines is a research assistant investigating a virus to kill the coconut rhinoceros beetle, also referred to as CRB, which is decimating Oahu’s coconut and palm trees. After years of trying to eradicate the beetle, the problem has grown to a full infestation, with thousands of trees dead because of the pest.
The virus Gaines is testing is a variant of the oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus, referred to as OrNV, which was discovered in the 1960s by German scientist Dr. Alois Huger, according to a 2022 report by researchers from New Zealand and Samoa. The virus, which Huger isolated after he killed healthy beetles by feeding them ones that had died of the virus, was the first time Samoa was able to successfully manage the pest after its introduction in 1910 from a Sri Lanka cargo vessel.
Preliminary results from her testing are promising, Gaines said. She’s observed larvae die after contracting the virus both by injection and naturally from deceased larvae. Most recently, she said, three out of four larvae died after she placed them inside a bin with a dead infected specimen.
Lack of testing facilities
Several East Asian and Pacific island nations have used the virus or variations of it to manage CRB for decades. While there is plenty of research that confirms the virus’ efficacy against the pest, there has been little research on how the virus may affect native beetles, such as the Kauai stag beetle, according to UH principal researcher Michael Melzer.
Other island chains that used the virus against CRB had economies more dependent on palm oil where the potential benefits of releasing the virus outweigh the risks or did not have native insects to worry about, Melzer said. The virus is host-specific, meaning it doesn’t mutate to infect other types of creatures, so the main concern is its effect on native beetles and similar insects.
Despite the beetle arriving in Hawaii in 2013, the state did not receive a permit to test the virus until April due to the lack of facilities where the tests could be safely administered and contained, said Jonathan Ho, plant quarantine branch manager for the state Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity.
He said the CRB invasion on Oahu reached the point where it was “all over the place,” and it wasn’t feasible to spray or inject every coconut tree on the island and properly dispose of all the green waste.
“At that point, at the landscape level, biocontrol was the only real realistic solution to mitigate the threat of CRB,” Ho said. “We weren’t going to spray or treat our way out of it.”
He added that despite its efficacy elsewhere in the Pacific, adequate testing is crucial to protect Hawaii’s environment and ensure the right virus strain is being utilized.
Melzer said federal funding the state received to respond to the CRB threat changed from an eradication focus to containment around 2020, ultimately leading to the development of the containment lab and procedures in order to score a federal permit to import the virus and begin testing on larvae.
A near ‘eureka’ moment
The entry to the colony lab, where Tomie Vowell, a member of the research support team, rears beetles for experiments on request, is a secure, pitch-black room that serves as a bridge between the lab and the hallway.
If a beetle were to escape — one never has, according to Melzer — it would get confused in the darkness. A single light in the corner would be turned on to attract the beetle so it could be recaptured.
“We basically just don’t want that virus leaving the lab, because we don’t know what impact it might have on both native or beneficial insects in Hawaii,” Melzer said.
From the dark room is a door that leads to the lab, where there are four locked refrigerators with beetles at different life stages in various labeled containers.
CRB eggs resemble small white balls. Once hatched, the tiny, pale grubs grow up to 2-1/2-inches long with a strong, black exoskeleton adorned with a rhinoceros-like horn and fuzzy underbelly. Their natural life cycle from grub to adult is typically a year, Vowell said.
Melzer traveled to Palau to get the virus strain the island nation had used successfully to combat the beetle, and brought it back to Hawaii.
In a separate lab, Gaines dresses in full protective gear before injecting the virus into CRB larvae. The infected larvae become lethargic as their gut becomes inflamed.
Gaines said the first time she suspected a larva exhibiting symptoms had died of the virus, it was “not quite a eureka moment, but close to it.”
It can take two to four weeks for larvae to succumb to the virus, Melzer said, while infected adults live longer but ultimately become too lethargic to eat and starve to death.
He said the virus is effective because the beetles live long enough to spread the infection to others but in the end die themselves within weeks.
‘It’s already too late’
If everything goes to plan, Melzer estimates the virus could possibly be released into the wild within two years. Ho said the timeline is dependent on state and federal regulatory processes.
For some landscapers, the window for effective CRB containment has long closed.
“It just sucks because there’s a lot that could be done,” said Brent White, owner of Lush Palm Landscapes. “Maybe you should just let that thing (the virus) go out now and kill the beetles. It’s already too late. The North Shore is already gone. All the trees on the North Shore are going to be cut down pretty soon, they’re all going to be gone. There’s no saving it now — sorry, too late — which is really sad.”
White said he’s turned to treating his palm trees nightly with essential oils, which has helped keep his trees alive, but takes a lot of labor.
“It’s still so hard,” he said. “The minute you stop treating, the beetles come back and attack the tree. It’s just really sad that it’s growing out of control and there wasn’t proper mitigation methods in the beginning to stop it from happening.”
Chance Correa, owner of Malama Aina Landscape and Masonry Design, and Daniel Anthony, founder of nonprofits Hui Aloha ‘Aina Momona and Aloha Organic, agree.
The two employ Korean organic farming techniques to combat the beetle.
“In two to four years, we could lose every coconut tree,” Correa said. “There might not be coconuts to farm. It’s that bad.”
Aloha Organic uses a sulfur mixture to deter the beetle, Anthony said, along with nutrients to feed the trees.
“We noticed that the healthier your tree was, the more resilient it was to the beetle,” he said.
Anecdotally, Anthony’s methods have worked. During a visit Thursday, the residential property he’s been treating monthly in Kaaawa had plenty of coconuts in its trees, while a next-door neighbor’s trees showed evidence of beetle damage.
For both Correa and Anthony, coconuts are part of their culture that helped their ancestors survive for centuries.
“It’s life or death for us, for our culture, for our community,” Anthony said.
The two also share concerns about the long-term effects of chemical use on the trees and the fruit they produce.
More testing planned
Existing recommendations from the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity to combat CRB include chemicals, organic options such as fungi and physical barriers such as netting. Ho said that while he has not heard of sulfur successfully deterring the beetle and it hasn’t been formally studied, any organic option that can be replicated would be welcome.
Basal oil is another organic option to repel beetles, according to the agency’s website.
Ho said the process for a pesticide to get approval for use against CRB does not necessarily require the same type of rigorous testing on its effects on native species that a bio-agent such as the virus does. But, he explained, both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state have labeling processes for use as a pesticide.
He added that the chemicals listed on the agriculture department’s website are labeled as being usable and then tested by either UH or a survey response to test efficacy.
Other than treating palm trees, Ho said the best way to manage CRB until a successful bio-agent is approved is to manage green waste and prevent breeding.
In the meantime, Melzer and Gaines plan to begin testing the virus against native species and potentially bring in a different strain from another affected area to build a virus “library.”
Melzer said he also hopes to get a permit to test on adult beetles, which so far has not been approved due to the risk of the winged insects escaping by flight.
“We rear CRB for research purposes and we’ve never lost an adult out of there,” he said. “We’re hoping to convince them that we’re never going to lose an adult over here.”
If a permit is not obtained, Melzer said, UH will have to look at better bio-containment facilities so it can finish the testing process.
“Everyone recognizes how important it is that we have these facilities, not even just for CRB, but for other things in the future,” he said. “CRB will not be the last impactful invasive species in Hawaii.”
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Hawaii
Everyone Says Oahu’s Overcrowded. We Drove 20 Minutes Past Haleiwa And Found Beautiful Empty Beaches
Most visitors think Oahu’s North Shore stops at Haleiwa because that is where traffic builds to pandemonium, where beach parking fills earlier than you can imagine, and where sitting in your car between the familiar lineup of surf breaks and food trucks largely defines the experience. Once people have crawled through and found a place to stand at Waimea or Sunset, the mental box gets checked, and the car points back toward Honolulu fast, as if everything worth seeing has already been seen. But it hasn’t.
Instead of turning around at Haleiwa, we continued west on Farrington Highway and watched the storefronts fall away in the rearview mirror. The line of rental cars thinned fast as the road narrowed and the mountains got closer to the pavement. On the ocean side, long stretches of sand opened up, and within a few miles, we were seeing more wind in the ironwood trees than cars on the road or people on the beach.
Most visitors leaving Haleiwa head east toward Sunset Beach and Pipeline, where traffic stacks up endlessly and parking lots overflow. We went the other way. Out toward Mokuleia, the commercial North Shore disappears fast, and what replaces it is space. There are no visitors circling for stalls and no steady lines at food trucks. You can pull over without searching for the one open spot in a packed lot, and entire sections of beach sit quietly without the usual cluster.
Dillingham Airfield and the working North Shore.
One of the first landmarks after Mokule’ia Beach (which we will write about soon) is what most people still call Dillingham Airfield, though its official name is Kawaihapai Airfield. It is owned by the U.S. Army and managed by the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation under a 50-year lease, and it has been operated as a military installation since the 1920s, with HDOT taking over management in 1962. HDOT leases 272 acres of the 650-acre Dillingham Military Reservation and operates the single 9,000-foot runway, with the civilian side used heavily for gliders and skydiving while the Army retains first priority for air/land operations and uses the field for helicopter night-vision training.
As we drove past, it did not feel like a visitor attraction at all, even though you can spot the roadside signs for glider rides and skydiving. A small single-engine plane rolled down the runway and lifted off against the Waianae Mountains, then a glider followed, towed upward before separating and moving almost silently above the coastline. It is one of those North Shore scenes that makes you slow down without thinking about it, because it looks like real working Oahu rather than the marketed version, with runway, mountains, and open water all in the same frame and very few people around to make it feel like a production.
Camps that have been here for generations.
Close to the airfield are two oceanfront camps that rarely enter any typical Oahu visitor’s plans. The first is Camp Mokuleia, which sits along the shoreline and is owned by the Episcopal Church. If you’re not on a retreat, you can rent a campsite or tentalo on the beach. A little farther west is YMCA Camp Erdman, which opened in 1926 and is approaching its 100th anniversary, still renting oceanfront cabins and yurts to the public.
The accommodations are straightforward, with sand steps away from the doors and long views of the horizon. This is not a resort strip, and you won’t find any valet stands or infinity pools. Families gather around grills, kids move freely between cabins and the beach, while the ocean feels part of the daily backdrop more than it is an Instagram photo opportunity.
Camp Mokuleia tentalos start at $100 a night. Camp Erdman yurts and cabins range from $250-$450 per night for up to 6 guests. For context, the average vacation rental in the Mokuleia area lists above $500 a night.
The shoreline here is not known for calm, protected swimming, and currents can be strong without lifeguard towers stationed every few hundred yards. The beach also has a lot of coral, which keeps swimmers more limited than some other beaches. And that fact alone keeps casual beach traffic lighter, and it helps explain why this stretch feels so different from busier Oahu North Shore stops. The camps and the character of the water belong to the same landscape, shaped more by geography than by commercial branding.
Where the pavement ends.
Eventually, Farrington Highway reaches a gravel lot where the pavement stops and a locked gate marks the entrance to the Mokuleia section of Kaena Point State Park. There is no visitor center funneling people through an entrance plaza. Instead, there is open sky, steady trade winds, and a handful of parked cars facing a dirt road that continues on foot toward the westernmost tip of Oahu, where you can meet the road that comes from the other side. This is truly a part of Oahu that most visitors never see.
Hikers follow the old railroad route for roughly 2.7 miles to Kaena Point itself, where seabirds nest behind protective fencing and monk seals are sometimes seen along the shore. The trail is exposed, hot, and largely flat, with no services and little shade, which naturally limits casual foot traffic. Consider not trying it in the middle of the day. But, standing at the end of the paved road, with the Waianae Mountains behind you and nothing but raw coastline ahead, feels less like arriving at any Oahu attraction and more like standing at the literal end of the island.
What stood out most was how little competition there was for space. There were only a few cars in the lot when we arrived, and long portions of the beach were untouched compared with the chaotic churn nearby at Haleiwa. It was a bit windy, the mountains anchored one side of the horizon, and the coastline extended westward without any indication that you were sharing it with scattered other people.
If you have been to the North Shore more than once and believe you have already seen it, have you ever kept driving past Haleiwa until the pavement runs out? It’s worth the drive.
Photo Credits: © Beat of Hawaii at Kaena Point State Park, Oahu.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
Hilo
Tonight: Cloudy. Scattered showers in the evening, then isolated showers after midnight. Lows 59 to 66 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. Southeast winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Monday: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs 75 to 80 near the shore to around 65 at 4000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Cloudy with scattered showers. Lows 59 to 65 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Kona
Tonight: Cloudy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows around 69 near the shore to 45 to 52 near 5000 feet. Light winds. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy. Highs 81 to 86 near the shore to around 67 near 5000 feet. Light winds becoming west up to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 69 near the shore to 44 to 51 near 5000 feet. Northwest winds around 10 mph in the evening becoming light.
Waimea
Tonight: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 68 near the shore to 53 to 59 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph increasing to up to 20 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the morning. Highs 72 to 78 near the shore to 67 to 75 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 67 near the shore to 52 to 58 near 3000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Kohala
Tonight: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 68 near the shore to 53 to 59 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph increasing to up to 20 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the morning. Highs 72 to 78 near the shore to 67 to 75 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 67 near the shore to 52 to 58 near 3000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
South Big Island
Tonight: Cloudy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows around 71 near the shore to around 51 near 5000 feet. Northeast winds up to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Highs around 83 near the shore to around 64 near 5000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Lows around 70 near the shore to around 50 near 5000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph.
Puna
Tonight: Cloudy. Scattered showers in the evening, then isolated showers after midnight. Lows 59 to 66 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. Southeast winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
Monday: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs 75 to 80 near the shore to around 65 at 4000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Monday Night: Cloudy with scattered showers. Lows 59 to 65 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Waikoloa
Tonight: Cloudy. Lows around 70 near the shore to 48 to 54 above 4000 feet. Light winds.
Monday: Cloudy. Highs around 83 near the shore to 65 to 71 above 4000 feet. Light winds becoming northwest up to 15 mph in the afternoon.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 70 near the shore to 47 to 54 above 4000 feet. North winds 10 to 15 mph shifting to the east after midnight.
Synopsis
The cold front has dissipated into a trough and remains northwest of the Hawaiian Islands this evening. High pressure will build in from the north and allow the trade winds to strengthen from Monday through Wednesday. Brief passing showers will favor windward and mountain areas in the overnight to early morning hours through Wednesday and then over southeastern slopes and island interior sections from Thursday onward. Winds will weaken and veer slightly from a more east-southeast direction from Thursday on into the weekend. Shower activity will remain limited during this time period.
Short term update
The large band of high level cirrus clouds and mid level alto stratus clouds currently over the islands will continue to slowly diminish through Monday. The cold front approaching the islands has stalled and diminished into a trough just northwest of the island of Kauai.
Trade winds blow into the region and strengthen into the moderate to locally breezy range from Monday through Wednesday. A slight decrease in wind speeds and a shift from a more east- southeast direction remains in the forecast from Thursday onward as another cold front approaches the islands from the northwest, weakening and lifting the ridge north of the state. Local scale sea breeze winds will develop along terrain sheltered slopes of each island as the large scale winds weaken. Limited shower activity will prevail into next weekend with only brief showers possible.
The afternoon forecast looks good. No evening updates.
Previous discussion
Issued at 302 PM HST Sun Mar 1 2026.
Expectations for this afternoon remain on track. The boundary upstream of Kauai has made little to no forward progress today, sea breezes have struggled to establish owing to abundant high clouds, and showers southwest of Kauai and Oahu have essentially remained in place while stratiform elements peel off to the northeast. In addition, regenerating showers over Windward Oahu have dissipated in response to backing low-level flow. All told, an uneventful, cloudy, and mostly dry day across the state. Going forward, building heights over the N Central Pacific will maintain strengthening, but progressive high pressure at the surface. This in turn ensures the return of trades tonight which then become breezy during mid-week. Winds diminish slightly by late week as trades veer to ESE in advance of another round of upstream height falls. Typical trade wind weather anticipated throughout this time with showers focused windward and mauka. High clouds gradually clear from west to east Monday into Tuesday before exiting the area altogether by Wednesday.
Aviation
A weakening stationary boundary will allow for abundant high clouds and relatively light land/sea breezes to prevail across most TAF sites. This front will also allow for disorganized showers across Kauai and Oahu tonight, however confidence was on the lower end based on weather model guidance, so made use of VCSH and PROB30 where rain chances were felt to be the highest. MVFR conditions may prevail under shower activity, otherwise VFR is expected across most sites for the period.
AIRMET Tango remains in effect across the islands due to upper- level turbulence from FL200-400 due to this front, with conditions expected to improve into tomorrow as this system continues to weaken. Patchy mountain obscuration may occur due to the presence of this front, however observations and webcams suggest that the threat is not widespread enough to warrant an AIRMET at this time. Light icing is also possible in cloud layer 120-180.
Marine
Issued at 302 PM HST Sun Mar 1 2026.
A dissipated front will linger into Monday just northwest of the area. Fresh to locally strong easterly trades will build in by Tuesday as surface ridge strengthens to the north. Winds will maintain strength but veer east southeast towards the end of the week as another system approaches from the west.
Surf along north and west-facing shores will be above seasonal average as a northwest swell (310 degrees) is expected to impact through Monday. Surf should remain small though the week with a small northwest bump expected next weekend.
Surf along exposed east-facing shores will be a bit elevated due to a short-to medium-period northeast (40 degrees) swell, then decline Tuesday. However, period and choppy conditions are expected to return by Tuesday as fresh trade winds redevelop and expand upstream of the state.
Surf along south-facing shores will remain near the seasonal average into March.
HFO Watches/Warnings/Advisories
None.
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Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov
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