Scientific name: Oryctes rhinoceros
About CBR
The beetle develops from a grub.
There are different strains of the beetle.
The beetle damages plants by causing loss of leaf area, early nut fall resulting in lower yields.
Until recently the beetle has been controlled with a virus. However, the virus is no longer effectively keeping beetle populations under control.
Where is it found?
The beetle is native to Southeast Asia but has now spread to:
- American Samoa
- Fiji
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Papua New Guinea
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Tokelau
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu (under eradication).
Impacted crops
- coconut
- betel nut
- sago palm
- oil palm
- banana
- pandanus
- sugarcane
- tree fern
What to look for
- large jet-black beetles up to 40 mm long with prominent horns
- large pale coloured grubs
- tunnels in the crown of coconut palms with frass - often more than one per palm.
- V-shape damaged fronds.
What to do if you find it
Report the beetle to your local biosecurity authority.
How to protect your crop
- Regularly survey your crops.
- Establish pheromone traps and regularly inspect them and coconut palms growing nearby for frass and leaf symptoms.
- A method has been developed at the University of Guam. It involves catching the adults by covering potential breeding sites with gill nets.
- Make artificial breeding sites using coconut logs containing organic material (chicken manure, sawdust, rotting coconut fibre, oil palm bunches). Lace the site with spores of Metarrhizium anisopliae.
- Use a hooked wire to extract and destroy adult beetles feeding in the crowns of palms.
To find out more, contact your local biosecurity authority.
Predators
General predators include pigs, rats, ants and scoliid wasp parasites.