Killer beetle threatens coconut palms on Thai island Christiane Oelrich, dpa

Jun 1, 2011, 3:03 GMT

Koh Samui, Thailand - Coconut palms are as much part of Thailand as spaghetti is of Italy.

The resort island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand has always prided itself on having the biggest concentration of them in the whole country. But the arrival of killer beetle a couple of years ago shocked the island's inhabitants.

For many the palms are more than just a part of a beautiful backdrop: 6,000 families live from exports of the coconuts.

Thai cuisine and medicine are unimaginable without coconuts.

Lifestyle guru Tanyakamon Pramualratana recently wrote in the Bangkok Post's Life magazine that coconut is not only an important part of Thai curries.

'Our grandmother in the country also used to apply coconut oil, mixed with herbs, to injuries and to the face and hair.'

She cites an inscription at Wat Po temple, Bangkok's oldest. It says that afflictions including a poor memory, mumps and toothache can be cured using coconut oil.

'When the first palms died we didn't know what was happening but now it is clear: a non-native beetle is destroying the trees,' said Sitpasu Thongsuk, a hotel manager on Koh Samui.

He got involved with the issue because the large palms in the hotel grounds suddenly lost their fronds.

'We now think that the beetle was brought from South Africa by hotel owners who ordered plants and trees from there for their garden.'

Rhinoceros beetles, which are up to 2 centimetres long, and the even larger coconut leaf beetles lay their eggs in the unopened flowers and eat the young leaves. The trees die and then the insects move on to their next victim.

'There is only one solution: cut down the affected trees and kill the beetles,' Sitpasu said. The trunks of dead palms can be seen near the airport. Other palms only have a few blackened leaves left.

The 228-square-kilometre island had around 2.2 million coconut palms in 2007, according to the island's office of agriculture. 'The beetles have destroyed 125,050 palms,' said Paichon Yamban from the agriculture office. The annual yield per hectare has fallen by 20 per cent to 3,000 coconuts.

Well-off plantation owner Domrong Boromtanarat has lost hundreds of palms. He thinks the industry's good days are over.

'Earlier we also had a coconut oil factory but it became too expensive to transport the oil to the mainland,' he said. The factory has stood idle in the town of Nathon for years. 'I only use it now for storage.'

Nowadays it is almost only whole coconuts that are exported. The agriculture office puts the figure at around 32 million per year. The pest infestation pushed many plantation owners over the edge.

The plantation area has fallen almost 6 per cent to 13,489 hectares within four years. But since the Ministry of Agriculture set the parasitoid Asecodes hispinarum Boucek on to combat the beetles, the figure has been rising again. Fewer palms are dying, hotel manager Sitpasu said. Plantation owner Domrong has stuck with the business and is now reaping the benefits: the drop in production has driven the price up from 3 to 15 baht (10 to 50 cents) per coconut.

Local authorities are now working hard to make the island a centre of coconut production again. The tourism authorities have started a scheme in which the 1.1 million visitors who come every year can pay 300 baht to plant palm seedlings. They also get their name put up by the tree. Foreign names are not uncommon as 85 per cent of visitors are from overseas.

'It's a great success,' said tourism boss Saiphayom Somsuk. 'It is our aim to plant a million new palms.' They have managed just under a quarter of a million so far. If all goes well, they will bear their first fruit in six or seven years.