Destructive coconut rhinoceros beetles (CRBs) have spread widely on Oahu, and are now considered too firmly established to be eradicated. They bore into the tops of palms, bananas and native plants, mutilating and killing them — and that’s a very real threat: to Hawaii’s yards and parks, widely planted with palms; to cash crops, including coconuts, bananas and nursery palms; and to culturally important plantings, such as the legendary palms of Pokai Bay, said to have been the first coconut trees brought to Hawaii.

The City and County of Honolulu has concluded that insecticides, netting and traps are only passably effective in controlling CRBs’ continuing spread, and recently launched a program to remove dead and dying palms in city parks on the Leeward Coast and North Shore.

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” city Department of Parks and Recreation spokesman Nate Serota said during an Oct. 7 news conference about the problem in Haleiwa.

Still, it’s not too late to prevent CRBs and other invasives from being established throughout the Hawaiian islands. After nearly two years of vigorous advocacy and anguished pleas for assistance, Hawaii’s Board of Agriculture adopted rule amendments on Oct. 22 giving the state Department of Agriculture (HDOA) new, necessary authority to designate quarantine areas, allow inspections, and prevent the sale of plants, compost or other products containing CRBs, little fire ants (LFAs) and coqui frogs — all threats to native species and ecosystems.

These rules are long overdue, but hold great potential. With Gov. Josh Green’s support, they must be quickly made official.

Carrying pests from place to place with plants or soil is one of the most insidious, yet most preventable, causes of pest establishment in a new environment. Yet HDOA Chair Sharon Hurd has shown a curious lack of urgency on the matter, which appears tied to objections from the nursery and agriculture industries.

On Oct. 22, Hurd said she would seek to educate industry outlets, providing a “guidance” document before acting on the rules. However, slow-rolling these tighter procedures cannot be tolerated.

Before HDOA’s new rules and powers take effect, the Small Business Regulatory Review Board (SBRRB) must review them, and the governor must give final approval. While the SBRRB has these rules under advisement, HDOA must press forward to create industry guidance and be prepared to act at the earliest opportunity.

The matter is drawing more attention, with the signs of destruction nearly impossible to ignore. Just this week, Hawaii’s U.S. Rep. Ed Case announced that he and Rep. James Moylan of Guam have introduced the Invasive Species Response Act, which would expand federal efforts to combat invasive species, allocating an additional $15 million annually for a five-year effort.

Case’s legislation would build on a “strike team” model deployed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, shifting emphasis from a species-by-species approach to an ecosystem approach, seeking to eradicate or control multiple invaders at once.

Pointing to the extinction of Hawaii’s native birds and plants caused or hastened by invasives, Case accurately said, “Protecting Hawaii’s unique biodiversity is not just an environmental necessity — it is a cultural imperative that reflects the identity and heritage of the Hawaiian people.”

Another new development: Oahu nonprofit Conservation Dogs of Hawaii has trained about a half-dozen dogs to detect little fire ants (LFAs) by scent, and teams on Hawaii island are prepping canines there for the task. The project is still in a very early stage, but focusing the dogs on nurseries and other common hubs for moving plants or soil between locations is a focus.

Pairing HDOA inspections and quarantines with complementary resources such as LFA-detecting dogs could jump-start Hawaii’s battle with invasives. Creative use of all available resources must be incorporated to make headway on this serious problem.