Kona Coffee is at risk as the coffee borer beetle destroys coffee crops!
Some know it as the berry borer beetle or the coffee borer beetle. However, this African pest is now invading Kona and is a real threat to its coffee. This pest is about 1.5 mm long. Females can fly short distances but the males do not have wings. The beetle costs the coffee industry over $500 million each year. Due to Kona’s small harvest, a coffee borer beetle infestation would be devastating.
Here are some things you may not have known about this threat to your favorite cup of coffee:
- The beetle lays its eggs in the fruit of the coffee, or the cherry. Coffee beans are found in the cherry. The larva from the beetles hatch and eat the coffee bean.
- When the beetle takes establishes in coffee trees and invades the coffee fruit, the itself in the fruit, the beetle can cause secondary infestations of other pests, including fungi, bacteria and other insects.
- The damage done by the coffee borer beetle, in addition to the additional infestations of fungi, bacteria and other insects can destroy coffee trees and beans.
- The coffee borer beetle is a serious problem to the yields of a tree and plantation and is of particular concern when it comes to Kona coffee, because of its small harvest size.
- A coffee borer beetle infesting a Kona coffee tree drills into its cherries. Within one to two days, it will lay about three to four dozen eggs.
- In about one and a half weeks, the beetle outgrows its larval stage.
- In about 43 days, the coffee borer beetle reaches maturity.
- Female coffee borer beetles live about 110 days; males about 40 days.
- A single infested Kona coffee plant has the potential to contain many generations of the coffee berry borer beetle.