It only took a few seconds and a tug on a monofilament net for Kaua鈥榠 farmer Fletcher Parker to find a dozen adult coconut rhinoceros beetles in a square foot of mulch on the island鈥檚 South Shore.
Over the next few hours, he and roughly 10 others found hundreds of the beetles in the broader mulch pile. Some were adults that had tried to burrow out of the net but lost their heads in the process. Others were wiggling, off-white larvae with large red head capsules.
Dozens of nearby coconut trees showed V-shaped cuts 鈥� a tell-tale sign of CRB feeding. Parker said the invasive pest鈥檚 damage on Kaua鈥榠 is steadily . Areas that once had trees with minimal to no damage are now seeing harsher impacts.
鈥淧eople should be sounding the alarms,鈥� he said.
He鈥檚 one of a handful of Kaua鈥榠 residents who have been tracking CRB鈥檚 spread, documenting impacted niu, or coconut trees, as well as breeding, treatment and trap sites, as part of a funded by a $25,000 county innovation grant.
With CRB recently for the first time and rediscovered on Maui, some say the Kaua鈥榠 project is a model for other Hawai鈥榠 community efforts in areas already inundated with the invasive pest.
鈥淲ith the state resources limited, you know, it always comes down to the community anyway,鈥� said Christine Chow, education and community coordinator for N膩 Kahu o H艒鈥榓i, a nonprofit that maintains Prince K奴hi艒 Park in Po鈥榠p奴 and hosted a recent CRB community workday.
鈥業t Really Does Take All Of Us鈥�
The Niu Ola Kauhale community mapping project is being led by E Ola K膩kou Hawai鈥榠, a Kaua鈥榠 nonprofit dedicated to preserving, protecting and restoring Hawai鈥榠鈥檚 natural resources. The group in 2025 hosted workdays where 20 to 30 participants would help sift through mulch piles to find CRB. Its map is expected to be updated quarterly.
The beetles spend most of their life in decaying plant material, and a single adult female beetle can lay up to 140 eggs in her lifetime. Over two months alone, the group found 166 eggs, 2,539 larvae, 29 pupa and 114 adults during workdays in Wailua, Po鈥榠p奴, L墨hu鈥榚 and Anahola.
N膩kai鈥榚lua Villatora, the group鈥檚 po鈥榦 pani or vice president, said the mapping project is meant to empower and mobilize the Kaua鈥榠 community to collect evidence of CRB鈥檚 presence. The goal is that the evidence can help inform solutions, such as targeted mitigation efforts in hotspots.
鈥淲e all understand that it really does take all of us as a collective to combat such an invasive pest like CRB,鈥� she said.
Under the project, a designated alaka鈥榠, or leader, is responsible for surveying in each of Kaua鈥榠鈥檚 four inhabited moku, or districts. They engage in the traditional practice of kilo, or observation. For feeding sites, they look at number of trees impacted, how severe the damage is and how long the damage has been present.
Between December and March, the alaka鈥榠 had contributed over 700 data points to the map. About 70% of impacted trees showed low estimated damage levels, where only one to three fronds showed evidence of CRB feeding.
Their efforts will be supplemented with community-submitted data now that E Ola K膩kou Hawai鈥榠 released the first iteration of its public map. Morgan Mott, a Wailua resident, attended E Ola K膩kou Hawai鈥榠鈥檚 recent community workday at Prince K奴hi艒 Park and has already submitted entries for a few damaged trees in her neighborhood.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited to see the shift,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e can all be the change.鈥�
One limitation of community-submitted data is that CRB damage and the pest itself can be mistaken for other things. E Ola K膩kou Hawai鈥榠 requires submissions to include photos so Villatora and another volunteer can verify findings. The nonprofit also plans to hold more community workdays and other community conversations so that it can help educate residents on what to look for when they contribute to the map.
鈥楶icking Between Bad Or Worse鈥�
Few maps of CRB鈥檚 spread exist in the state.
CRB Response, an organization managed through the University of Hawai驶i, and various invasive species committees within UH鈥檚 Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit have maps for their detection trap networks, but little has been done to track feeding, breeding and treatment sites.
Sabrina Day of 鈥樐�ina Ho鈥榦kupu o K墨lauea on Kaua鈥榠鈥檚 North Shore said she admires E Ola K膩kou鈥檚 ability to get the community moving and recruit key leaders in each part of the island to help spread out the work. The nonprofit received a 2024 Hawai鈥榠 Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity grant to help increase community awareness of CRB.
O鈥榓hu nonprofit Aloha Organic has a , but it鈥檚 based on submissions from those who help its founder Daniel Anthony care for niu, around the Ko鈥榦lau Range. While it is open to the public, Anthony said he hasn鈥檛 had the resources to do more with it.
He鈥檚 glad E Ola K膩kou Hawai鈥榠 was able to get grant funding to support its community map and plans to work with the nonprofit to share its model with other islands. Their work is important, he said, because it gives community members the tools to understand how bad of a situation their trees may be in and the potential ways forward, rather than relying on someone else to diagnose and solve the problem.
Arisa Barcinas, an outreach associate with CRB Response, said the Niu Ola Kauhale map is a model for communities in areas with large beetle populations. CRB is considered widespread on both O鈥榓hu and Kaua鈥榠.
鈥淚 think that鈥檚 what a lot of the community has been wanting but isn鈥檛 being mapped out too much by any one agency in covering all those things,鈥� she said.
But for areas with little to no CRB, residents should report to the appropriate agencies, like the invasive species committees or the state鈥檚 (808) 643-PEST hotline, she said.
Much of Hawai鈥榠鈥檚 CRB response has by limited resources.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have the necessarily resources to hit it on all fronts,鈥� said Jonathan Ho, manager of HDAB鈥檚 plant quarantine branch. 鈥淚t鈥檚 picking between bad or worse.鈥�
On Kaua鈥榠, the department only has three plant quarantine and pest control staffers.
鈥淲e鈥檙e appreciative that the community is stepping up and biding time while the state is looking into biocontrol agents because that鈥檚 realistically the only landscape level solution for CRB,鈥� Ho said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to spray our way out of this.鈥�
Slowing The Beetle鈥檚 Spread
Kaua鈥榠鈥檚 Kona moku stretches from Kekaha to Po鈥榠p奴. Chris Ka鈥榠akapu, the moku alaka鈥榠, or leader, has been watching CRB spread and is now seeing the impacts hit closer to home. In Hanap膿p膿, he estimates 15% of trees have some damage.
He said E Ola K膩kou Hawai鈥榠鈥檚 map builds on of a two-day field survey conducted by a community group called Niu Now in November. Niu Now鈥檚 co-founder surveyed 1,200 coconut trees between Kekaha and H膩鈥榚na and found heavy CRB damage in L墨hu鈥榚-Wailua, Wailua Homesteads and Kal膩heo. One conclusion was that coordinated community efforts can slow or reverse the beetles鈥� spread.
Ana Espanola, sustainability coordinator with Kaua鈥榠鈥檚 Office of Economic Development, said one of the benefits of a such an effort is that a community group can reach people or areas who might not trust the government.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really leveraging what they are really good at, which is connecting with community, and we鈥檙e both aligned in trying to figure out how to deal with CRB,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur weakness is also their strength, so it just makes sense to grant them this award.鈥�
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