Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) Eradication Program Semi-annual Progress Report

Transcription

1 Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) Eradication Program Semi-annual Progress Report prepared by Dr. Aubrey Moore, Entomologist University of Guam Cooperative Extension Service December 6, 2009 for USDA-APHIS Grant CA (CRB Eradication) USDA-APHIS Grant CA (CRB Biocontrol) USDA-Forest Service Grant 08-DG (CRB Eradication)

2 Executive Summary Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) Eradication Program Semi-annual Progress Report prepared by Dr. Aubrey Moore, Entomologist University of Guam Cooperative Extension Service November 29, 2009 The Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Eradication project currently uses two tactics: sanitation and trapping. Sanitation involves finding and destroying breeding sites. Trapping involves operation of pheromone traps to capture adults in infested areas and to detect changes in the geographical extent of the infestation. After two years of operation, it is obvious that these tactics are not sufficient to drive Guam's rhino beetle population towards eradication. However, our efforts have been successful in limiting growth and spread of the infestation. Trap catches have increased only slightly during the past two years ( 43 beetles per month trapped in 2008; 55 beetles per month trapped in 2009) and breeding sites have been found only along the northwest coast of Guam from Agana to Urunao with one inland incursion in the Agana Swamp, Sinajana, Nimitz Hill area. It appears that our current approach is not sufficient to eradicate the rhino beetle from Guam. We are therefor integrating two additional tactics into the project: Detector dogs will be used to increase our efficiency in finding beetle breeding sites. Four dog/handler teams were selected between April and June 2009 and have almost completed extensive training and evaluation under supervision of a USDA-APHIS dog trainer employed by the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency. Teams will graduate from their training during the second week of December 2009 will be immediately deployed doing comprehensive sweeps of areas in which breeding sites are suspected. Detected breeding sites will be removed and destroyed by our sanitation crew. Extra crew members are being hired to handle the increased work load. (Note: This sub-project is an exemplar of inter-agency collaboration. It was conceived and initiated by Guam's USDA-APHIS Port Director and enabled by a memorandum of understanding between the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency, Guam Department of Agriculture, and the University of Guam.) Oryctes baculovirus has been introduced into Guam's rhino beetle population as a biological control agent. This introduction was approved by USDA-APHIS. This virus attacks only members of the Dynastinae subfamily of scarab beetles. Since the rhino beetle is the only dynastid on Guam no nontarget effects are expected. The virus is spread throughout the rhino beetle population by "autodissemination". Live, healthy adult beetles from a lab colony maintained by the University of Guam are forced to imbibe a droplet of sugar solution dosed with virus particles. They are released before they get sick so that they can carry the virus to breeding sites. This biocontrol work is supported by a supplemental grant from USDA-APHIS which has enabled international collaboration with rhino beetle bio-control experts in the Pacific, namely Sadanand Lal, former entomologist for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Fiji, and Dr. Trevor Jackson of AgResearch Ltd., New Zealand. Dr. Jackson is the leading world authority on Oryctes baculovirus and his lab provided us with inoculum. For more information on the Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Eradication Project, please visit our project wiki at and our project website at

3 Figure 1. Coconut palm at Oka Point killed by CRB Background During September 2007, an infestation of the coconut rhinoceros beetle was discovered along the beach of Tumon Bay. Adults of this large scarab kill coconuts ans other palms when they bore into the crown to feed on sap. Grubs feed on decaying coconut logs and stumps. Without significant control efforts, CRB can be expected to kill at least 50% of Guam's coconut palms and related plants, as it did within a few years of its arrival in Palau during the Second World War. A thorough delimiting survey and risk assessment undertaken by the University of Guam, the Guam Department of Agriculture, and the USDA indicated that the population could be eradicated before it dispersed to other parts of the island. The Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Eradication Project has been in operation for the past two years. Funding. The project is currently supported by a $198,000 grant from USDA-APHIS, a $254,000 from the USDA Forest Service, and a $500,000 allocation from the Government. An additional grant of $20,000 has been provided by USDA-APHIS for establishment of a biocontrol agent for CRB population suppression. These funds are administered by the University of Guam. Most of the money is for temporary hires to staff the project, for pheromone lures, and for fuel and maintenance of project vehicles. Project Management. The project is managed as an emergency Incident Command System (ICS) under the command of Dallas Berringer, USDA-APHIS Port Director, and Joe Torres, Guam Department of Agriculture Director. Dr. Russell Campbell, the Territorial Entomologist, and Dr. Aubrey Moore, UoG Extension Entomologist provide scientific/technical support for the project. Roland Quitugua has been contracted by the University to work as project manager. The ICS holds a planning meeting every Monday morning, prepares weekly situation reports, and participates in a monthly conference call with funding agencies and collaborators.

4 Staffing. A field crew of twelve temporary employees has been hired by the University to perform trapping and sanitation operations. This crew is supervised by Rick Lizama, an employee of the Guam Department of Agriculture. An additional four people have been hired by the University as dog trainers. Eradication Activities. The eradication project employs two major tactics: sanitation and trapping. Sanitation is focused on detection of destruction of breeding sites. CRB breed mainly in dead coconut material. When breeding sites are detected, all potential food for CRB grubs is be removed and sanitized. Pheromone traps are used to catch adult beetles and detect geographical spread of the infestation. Two new tactics are being integrated into the eradication project. Detector dogs have been trained and will be used to find breeding sites. An insect virus, which only attacks scarab beetles in the rhino beetle sufamily (Dynastinae), is being used as a biological control agent to suppress the population. Data Collection and Record Keeping. A daily log of all activities is maintained and a weekly report is prepared and distributed as per ICS standard operating procedure. Trapping data, detections of CRB grubs or adults, and observations of CRB defoliation and bore holes are entered daily into a web-based, georeferenced database. Data from this database is publicly accessible from a wiki page at Links on this page enable the user to view trap catch data as a spatiotemporal display using a Google Earth animation, view monthly trap catch as a graph and chart, and prepare trapping data for upload to NAPIS. Other project output including fact sheets, technical reports, media coverage, and images are publicly from a wiki page at More recent information is posted on a Drupal web site at Current Situation The Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Eradication project currently uses two tactics: sanitation and trapping. Sanitation involves finding and destroying breeding sites. Trapping involves operation of pheromone traps to capture adults in infested areas and to detect changes in the geographical extent of the infestation. After two years of operation, it is obvious that these tactics are not sufficient to drive Guam's rhino beetle population towards eradication. However, our efforts have been successful in limiting growth and spread of the infestation. Trap catches (Figs.4 & 5) have increased only slightly during the past two years ( 43 beetles per month trapped in 2008; 55 beetles per month trapped in 2009) and breeding sites (Fig. 3) have been found only along the northwest coast of Guam from Agana to Urunao with one inland incursion in the Agana Swamp, Sinajana, Nimitz Hill area. It appears that our current approach is not sufficient to eradicate the rhino beetle from Guam. We are therefor integrating additional tactics into the project. Detector dogs will be used to increase our efficiency in finding beetle breeding sites. Four dog/handler teams were selected between April and June 2009 and have almost completed extensive training and evaluation under supervision of a USDA-APHIS dog trainer employed by the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency. Teams will graduate from their training during the second week of December 2009 will be immediately deployed doing comprehensive sweeps of areas in which breeding sites are suspected.

5 Progress Trapping. We are currently running about 1300 locally constructed baffled bucket traps baited with Oryctalure, an aggregation pheromone which attracts both sexes of CRB adults. Traps are checked approximately every 2 weeks by trap checkers equipped with Garmin Oregon 550 GPS receivers. These GPS receivers contain a detailed map of Guam with the locations of all traps stored as waypoints. Upon locating a trap, the trap checker edits the waypoint data by entering a simple code to indicate trap catch. For example,: "M2F1L" entered into the waypoint's notes field indicates that 2 males and one female was captured and that the lure was replaced. At the end of each day, waypoint data are uploaded to the project database which now contains over 29,000 trap visit records. Automated data entry has eliminated errors associated with manual data entry and can be done within a few minutes each day. Custom software has been written to facilitate uploading trapping data into the NAPIS database. Sanitation. To date, 17,563 cubic feet of potential food for CRB grubs, most of which was removed from breading sites, has been chipped, fumigated, and removed from the infested area. Purchase of a specially designed chipper capable of handle wet, fibrous coconut material has greatly reduced time needed for material processing operations. Detector Dogs. Detector dogs will be used to increase our efficiency in finding beetle breeding sites. Four dog/handler teams were selected between April and June 2009 and have almost completed extensive training and evaluation under supervision of a USDA-APHIS dog trainer employed by the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency. Teams will graduate from their training during the second week of December 2009 will be immediately deployed doing comprehensive sweeps of areas in which breeding sites are suspected. Detected breeding sites will be removed and destroyed by our sanitation crew. Extra crew members are being hired to handle the increased work load. (Note: This sub-project is an exemplar of inter-agency collaboration. It was conceived and initiated by Guam's USDA-APHIS Port Director and enabled by a memorandum of understanding between the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency, Guam Department of Agriculture, and the University of Guam.) Biocontrol. Oryctes baculovirus has been introduced into Guam's rhino beetle population as a biological control agent. This introduction was approved by USDA-APHIS. This virus attacks only members of the Dynastinae subfamily of scarab beetles. Since the rhino beetle is the only dynastid on Guam no non-target effects are expected. The virus is spread throughout the rhino beetle population by "auto-dissemination". Live, healthy adult beetles from a lab colony maintained by the University of Guam are forced to imbibe a droplet of sugar solution dosed with virus particles. They are released before they get sick so that they can carry the virus to breeding sites. This biocontrol work is supported by a supplemental grant from USDA-APHIS which has enabled international collaboration with rhino beetle bio-control experts in the Pacific, namely Sadanand Lal, former entomologist for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Fiji, and Dr. Trevor Jackson of AgResearch Ltd., New Zealand. Dr. Jackson is the leading world authority on Oryctes baculovirus and his lab provided us with inoculum. Lal paid a one week visit to Guam in September, During his trip, he showed Moore and Campbell how to infect healthy beetles with virus and how to dissect field caught adults to take tissue samples for virus detection by PCR. During his visit, we did a prerelease survey and tissue samples

6 were sent to the SPC PCR lab in Fiji for analysis. Twenty four beetles were infected and released during Lal's trip, with a further 24 infected and released two weeks later. All released beetles were marked with a unique number on a small tag attached to the right elytron with five minute epoxy. Applying these labels is very tedious. We have ordered a laser marking system which will be used to etch unique numbers onto the surface of elytra. New Initiatives Acoustic Detection. A Western IPM Special Issues grant brought Dr. Richard Mankin, USDA-ARS- CMAVE to Guam in May 2008 to investigate the feasibility of using acoustic detection to find CRB adults and grubs. Two weeks of field study showed that the sensitive equipment used by Mankin could readily detect feeding sounds and stridulation communication sounds of both larvae and adults by a skilled operator when ambient noise levels are low during periods of no rain and low wind. One journal article on this study has already been published and a second is in press: Mankin, R. W., A. Moore, P. R. Samson, and K. J. Chandler Acoustic characteristics of Dynastid beetle stridulations. Fla. Entomol. 92: Mankin, Richard and Aubrey Moore Acoustic detection of Oryctes rhinoceros (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) and Nasutitermes luzonicus (Isoptera: Termitidae) in palm trees in urban Guam. J. Econ. Entomol.[in press] Testing of Potential Attractants. A CRB damage survey of coconut palms growing on the grounds of the Pacific Islands Club Resort in Tumon discovered a cluster of badly damaged trees centered on an outdoor spa where aromatherapy is practiced and were several types of body lotions are used. Moore hypothesized that one or more of the products may have attracted CRB adults into the area and mentioned this swag to a high school student, Andy Lee, who was in search of an interesting science fair project. The student purchased an assortment of chemicals from the spa, built a crude four-armed ambulatory olfactometer and tested adult beetles with it using the commercial available aggregation pheromone as a positive control. One of the lotions, Body Butter was highly attractive to the beetles; about half as attractive as the pheromone. Plans are to refine the experiment and determine the attractiveness and chemical identity of the active ingredient in the Body Butter. Lee has repeated his olfactometer tests with an improved protocol. Results are confirmatory. "Body Butter" appears to be about 50% as attractive as the pure Oryctalure(r) aggregation pheromone. Dr. Eric Jang, a chemical ecologist with the USDA-ARS Pacific Basin Research Center in Hilo has offered to help on further research with "Body Butter".

7 Impediments to Progress Access to Military Land. Approximately one third of Guam's land is controlled by the U.S. Military. To date, we have not received permission to enter land controlled by the navy or the Air Force for the purpose of surveying for CRB. The project has an active collaboration with civilian biologists working for the Navy. These biologists maintain and check about 15 traps for us on the naval base at Apra Harbor and on the Naval Communications Station. We do not have a similar arrangement with the Air Force to help with monitoring traps. Two areas controlled by the military of immediate concern. The Naval Communication Station sits between two areas where we have found and removed CRB breeding sites, namely Tanguissan Beach and Urunao (indicated by the two northernmost clusters of blue points on the map at the end of the Appendix). The other area is the western part of Andersen Air Force Base which is adjacent to the known infestation at Urunao. To date, we have been unable to secure permission to do a ground survey of these areas. It is probable that breeding populations of CRB will be found in one or both areas. Figure 2. Map of the northern tip of Guam. Green areas are public or private. Other colors indicate land occupied by the US Military.

8 Low Trap Efficacy. Surveys of CRB damage to coconut palms in Tumon Bay hotel landscapes indicate that trees are not being adequately protected despite a very high density of traps intended to intercept adult beetles before they attack trees. In addition, none of six marked adult males released in the middle of the mass trapping are were trapped. We have tried augmenting attractiveness of the pheromone traps by adding rotting coconut vegetation, and by trap design changes including addition of battery operated lights. None of our modifications have resulted in a significant increase in trap rate. A large field cage (20' x 10') has been constructed at Oka Point within the infested area of Guam. This cage will be used for direct observation of how beetles react to pheromone traps. Low Insecticide Efficacy. We had originally planned to protect high value trees using prophylactic insecticide applications. We tried crown applications of granules and liquids and also injected several systemic insecticides into trunks and petioles. Lab bioassays of plant tissue samples did not result in any significant mortality. Nor did bioassays in which systemic insecticides were pipetted directly into the mouths of beetles.

9 Figure 3. The map shows location of CRB breeding sites indicated by the discovery of grubs (large red blobs) or adult beetles which were not caught in pheromone traps (smaller red blobs). The histogram shows numbers of immatures and adults discovered per month.

10 Figure 4. Location of CRB pheromone traps.

11 Figure 5. The map shows locations of CRB pheromone traps which have caught one or more beetles. The histogram shows numbers of beetles caught per month.