Kona Coffee crops at at a unique risk from a new African pest known locally on the Big Island at the "Berry Borer Beetle".  Here are some facts you didn't know about this Kona coffee pest:

• The coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) is a pest that has caused about a half a billion dollars damage to the world’s coffee crop each year.  This includes gourmet coffees such as Kona coffee and other Hawaii coffee.

• Overall the coffee industry overall generates about $90 billion each year. The coffee berry borer beetle is a tiny insect that is native to the African continent.

• The coffee berry borer beetle lays eggs in the coffee fruit of the plant which is known as the coffee cherry.  This is a little red fruit that the Kona coffee bean is extracted from.

• The eggs in the coffee berry and fruit develop into larva. These larva then feed on the coffee bean inside that berry.

• Once the coffee berry borer beetle invades the fruit of a Kona coffee plant it may cause secondary infestation of other things like fungi, bacteria and other insects.

• The damage caused by the coffee berry borer as well as the secondary effects can destroy the Kona coffee beans or reduce the yield of the Kona coffee trees on a Kona coffee farm or plantation.

• The coffee berry borer beetle infesting a Kona coffee plant will typically drill into the Kona coffee cherry and within one or two days will lay about three or four dozen eggs.

• Coffee berry borer beetles are about 1.5 mm long. Females can fly a short ways but the males do not have wings.

• The larval stage of the coffee berry borer beetle lasts about two and one-half weeks.

• It takes about thirty-four days from the time that a egg is laid by the coffee berry borer to the time the insect reaches adulthood.

• Female coffee berry borer beetles live about 110 days while the males only live about forty days.

• One infested Kona coffee plant could potentially contain several generations of the coffee berry borer beetle.