New invader may threaten crops
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
The glassy-winged sharpshooter has landed in Hawai'i. And bug experts here are not giving it the traditional aloha welcome.
Ron Heu photo
The half-inch, toady-headed insect with the smoky-brown wings and yellow legs has caused millions of dollars in damage to California's grape growers in recent years, and entomologists at the Hawai'i Department of Agriculture say the invader could potentially wreak havoc on local citrus, coffee and avocado operations.
This glassy-winged sharpshooter was found on a white hibiscus plant at a Pearl City housing complex. The pest has caused severe damage to California's grape growers
Ron Heu, survey entomologist with the Agriculture Department, said the insect — which is probably here to stay — is a bigger threat than your average plant pest.
"It is more of a concern," he said. "It means that commercial growers will have to monitor for this and be more vigilant."
Heu said glassy-winged sharpshooters, or Homalodisca coagulata, reproduce rapidly and feed on dozens of varieties of plants. They can do severe damage to plants on which they light.
While feeding, the shooters also excrete copious amounts of watery excrement, which gives plants a whitish appearance once it dries.
The presence of the pest in Hawai'i came to light after Cheryl Wong of Pearl City spotted a pair of the insects on her Disco Pink Hibiscus and exotic Lady of The Night plants at her townhouse on May 4.
Wong, a Honolulu Home Depot garden associate who teaches garden basics, squashed one sharpshooter, but turned the other over to agriculture specialists because she had never seen anything like it.
"The first thing they said when they called me back was, 'We want to thank you for bringing this down,'" Wong said. "Then they told me it's not a good bug at all, and that they were glad someone alerted them."
Larry Nakahara, manager of the Agriculture Department's plant pest control branch, said the major fear is that these new arrivals have brought the bacterium Xylelle fastidiosa with them. Should that be the case, the bugs could bring disease to numerous varieties of species — from nut trees to ornamental plants.
So far, Nakahara said the department has found no evidence of the lethal bacterium. But results from test samples sent to a lab on the Mainland have yet to be completed.
Nakahara said for now the half-inch leafhoppers are confined to the Waiau/Pearl City/ Waimalu area, the only area where his staff has found and collected the insects since being alerted to their presence.
He asks that residents who spot the sharpshooters elsewhere in the Islands contact the department at 973-9522.
"The infestations are not yet large in the sense of what it's capable of doing," he said. "We're seeing the early stages of the infestation. We're primarily seeing a lot of juveniles and a few adults."
But Nakahara said the insects, which don't bite and pose no threat to humans, have become too established here to be eradicated.
He said his staff discovered yesterday that the pests have made substantial infestations in the area's oleander and African tulip plants.
"They may like a lot more than that," he said. "That's just what we've seen."
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
