Farmers’ frustrations grow over lack of resources
Video by David Corrigan | Baron Sekiya (Hawaii247.com) | Voice of Tim Bryan
The presence of a devastating invasive pest has been confirmed in Kona coffee country.
Last week, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture announced that the “coffee berry borer” had been discovered in several coffee farms in Kona.
Now, farmers and state officials are planning steps to contain and control the pest. Hilo’s State Representative and Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, Clift Tsuji, says that could include a coffee quarantine.
The coffee berry borer is a small beetle – about the size of a sesame seed – that is native to Central Africa and is also found in many coffee-growing regions of the world. The beetle bores into the coffee cherry to lay its eggs. The larvae feed on the coffee bean, reducing the yield and quality of the crop. Because the larvae are inside the bean, it is difficult to control the borer with pesticides.
A state-wide survey is now being organized to determine the extent of the infestation. The beetle already appears to be established from Kainaliu to Honaunau on Hawaii Island. It is possible that the beetle has been present in Kona for over a year.
It is not yet known how the coffee berry borer was introduced to Hawaii.
The state already called a meeting with farmers in South Kona. A crowd gathered at the Kona Historical Society on Monday to talk about the problem that threatens Hawaii’s world renown industry.
It has been a tough year for Kona coffee farmers. A severe drought has already taken its toll on trees, and pollinating honeybees are under attack from varroa mite and small hive beetle infestations.
The state legislature hopes to be able to assist as best it can.
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Good Morning
I am the kona farmer that spoke to the farmers in the meeting about the coffee bean borer (broca), I gave the farmers an idea of spraying their farms with soapy water that I had found effective in Haiti in 2002, but then when I experimented here in Kona.
I could not kill the beetles, so it made me do more experiments to find the reason it worked in Haiti but not here, not being a scientist, I dug into the internet to get to know the physical make-up of the beetle and found that they have a hard shell that protects them from the soap that is made in the US versus the basic soap that the Haiti farmers had, the differences are, in Haiti they only use Lye and fat (oil) and the soap is very strong in lye, so, having construction lime at hand, and knowing that it is very strong, I mixed some with water and sprayed some ants around my house, that killed them on the spot. (ants have a hard shell)
I took my strong lime water to the farm, located some live brocas, lay them on a table and with a witness, lightly sprayed them,
IT KILLED THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME??????????????
SOLUTION!!! GET YOUR SCIENTISTS TO WORK AND EXPERIMENT LIKE I DID, AND GET WHAT I DID CONFIRMED, AND LETS START SPRAYING WITH HOT LIME, ALL OUR FARMS.
SECOND EXPERIMENT
Trapping brocas, the use of Ethanol is very expensive because is drinkable, Denatured Alcohol is cheap but not a good attractant because is only 10% Methanol in it but is cheap because there’s no taxes, so I sweetened it with crushed coffee berries for 24 hours, and now it is a good cheap atractant.
My trip to Haiti and Nicaragua happened in January and March of 2002 when I was living in Golden Colorado where I returned to, from there my wife and I drove to Our Home in Alaska and returned to Hawaii in January 2003 to build a new house.
There’s recorded incidents of encounters in several prior years prior to 2008.
In 2008, I found some cherries with the typical broca perforations, but apparently there was no living samples in them, so it was assumed that weyward twigg borer had done it, and when the report came back and Virginia and Elsie told me, I failed to ask them if they had inspected the samples for broca eggs.
Please Reply
Frank Babiak
Good Morning
THIS IS AN UPDATE TO MY MESSAGE YESTERDAY
The experiment that I mentioned to you yesterday, about using construction lime was conducted on Saturday, when me and my neighbor farmer were able to kill the brocas that we got wet with our lime water mixture that killed them, did not worked on Sunday with the same mix that we used on Saturday.
What happened??? I suspected that the lime I used had lost it’s strenght because it was an old bag left over from my 2003 house construction, so I put a drop on the lower arm of my skin and did not have a burning feel, this morning I bougth a new bag of construction lime, put a finger mark on the same spot on my arm, a little water and immediately felt the burning sensation. “you can make your own conclution”
Today I will use the new lime and water and will use it again on the Brocas, and I am convinced that it will kill them, if I make a good kill with my strong lime, I need your tel number to call you.
After this I will spread the news to all my Coffee farmer friends. but we will need for you to experiment and tell us how much lime will be required to mix with one gallon of water, or find your selfs a different method to control this pest.
Please reply if you are reading these notes.
Frank