As part of an ongoing effort to protect Hawaii from the invasive brown tree snake, specialists with the Department of Agriculture’s Plant Quarantine Branch on Friday installed more traps at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

The traps are part of a broader effort by the state to ensure the destructive pests do not take hold in Hawaii and cause major harm to the economy and native species.

Within the past two years, the state has collaborated with the military base to install 12 galvanized steel traps around the airfield and cargo area. Six more traps were installed Friday.

And the state will acquire more than 20 new stainless steel traps in the coming months thanks to a recent $15,000 grant from the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of Interior.

Using chicken wire, land vertebrate specialist Kevin Minami of the state Plant Industry Division tied a galvanized steel trap with a live mouse inside a chain-link fence at Hickam.

The state and military alternate weekly to check the cylindrical traps three times a week. A single trap contains two holes on opposite sides where a snake could enter.

“The traps are out as a primary first defense of early detection should we find that the snakes made it here,” said base natural resource manager Rebecca Smith.

Minami said the stainless steel traps are more durable than galvanized steel traps, which are more prone to corrosion due to the elements and the live bait’s urine and fecal matter.

In Guam, brown tree snakes have devastated the native forest bird population and wreaked havoc on power lines.

The state’s efforts to keep Hawaii clear of the snakes include night fence line surveys to search for nocturnal reptiles and inspections of planes arriving at Hickam from Guam and other areas where there are snakes.

As he stood near the airfield Friday morning, Jonathan Ho, inspection and compliance section chief of the Agriculture Department’s Plant Quarantine Branch, said, “All these planes are inspected in Guam first and then we’re inspecting them again.

“So everything is basically double-inspected.”

Since the traps were installed at Hickam, there have been no brown tree snake captures, which Smith said is a good sign that the snakes are being effectively controlled. Ho said 1998 was the last time a brown tree snake was found in Hawaii.