Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle pg.2
Management:
Rhinoceros beetles can be controlled by eliminating the places where they breed and by manually destroying adults and immatures.
- Chop and burn decaying logs or break them up and destroy any rhinoceros beetles developing inside.
- Cut stumps as close to the soil surface as possible.
- Dead, standing coconuts should be felled, chopped, dried, and burned.
- Rhinoceros beetles do not usually lay eggs in potential breeding sites that are obscured by growing vegetation. Vines or ground covers can be planted or allowed to grow over logs or stumps that cannot be destroyed.
- Piles of dead leaves or grass can be composted, used for mulch, burned, or spread on the ground in a thin layer.
- Compost piles should be maintained properly. When turning compost piles or applying compost to plants, destroy any rhinoceros beetles found. It takes longer for rhinoceros beetle larvae to develop than it takes to make compost, so properly maintained compost should not serve as a source of rhinoceros beetles.
- A hooked wire can be used to extract and destroy rhinoceros beetle adults feeding in palm crowns.
In many countries, the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae or the Oryctes virus are used to control the rhinoceros beetle. More recently a chemical attractant, ethyl-4-methyloctanoate, has been used in traps to attract and kill the beetles. Both Metarhizium anisopliae and the Oryctes virus are present and helping to reduce rhinoceros beetle populations in American Samoa; however, these pathogens and the attractant have not yet received approval from the United States Environmental Protection Agency for use as pesticides to control the rhinoceros beetle.
