Parasitic Wasps Used To Help Fight Back Against Devastating Invasive Coffee Cherry Borer – CoffeeTalk
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture (DOA) has announced a plan to import Phymastichus coffea, a species of parasitic wasp, to help combat the coffee berry borer (CBB), an invasive pest that has been devastating to coffee farms worldwide. The wasps are expected to be released around April to hit the coffee growing season. The DOA will tent individual trees at first and then release the wasps within those tents before conducting any wide releases.
The wasps should lay eggs in the bodies of the borers when they hatch, which the larvae consume the borer, quickly mature, and seek more borers to parasitize. This process has been found to be effective in other countries suffering from the beetle, but there has been no recorded instance of a Phymastichus coffea specimen parasitizing a different species, so the risk of the wasps targeting native species is low. The wasp is particularly tiny and does not sting humans or animals.
If successful, the wasp will be a welcome friend to West Hawaii coffee farmers, who have found managing the borer to be a constant battle. Tom Greenwell, co-owner of the roughly 200-acre Greenwell Farms in Kealakekua, said his own coffee operation has seen a higher infestation rate in 2024 than the previous year, jumping from an estimated 12% rate to more than 40%.
Petersen said the most popular control method against the borer can still be unreliable. A popular fungal pesticide, which infects the borer with a hostile fungus, is effective at killing the bugs, but only as a contact spray, meaning it has to be used just at the right time to be effective. That pesticide can be expensive, running about $250 for a one-gallon bottle. Other control methods require constant maintenance of coffee trees to prevent the borers from gaining a foothold, which can be all for naught if a neighboring field is not also being similarly maintained.
The borer also reduces the quality of the coffee, with the presence of borers and their larvae breaking down the coffee bean and leaving a foul taste. Greenwell said he is hopeful about the wasp strategy, whose progress he has followed since it was announced. He has heard from farmers in other countries, such as France, who have stopped using the fungal pesticide because the wasp so effectively cut the borer’s population.
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Source: Coffee Talk