Location: Tropical Crop and Commodity Protection Research
Project Number: 2040-30400-002-012-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2026
End Date: Apr 30, 2027
Objective:
1. Establish and maintain laboratory colonies of coffee berry borer sufficient to support experimental releases and long-term biological control implementation.
2. Establish and optimize mass-rearing systems for Phymastichus coffea to support experimental releases and long-term biological control implementation.
3. Develop and implement field release strategies for P. coffea across representative coffee production regions and environmental conditions in Hawaii.
4. Evaluate establishment success, parasitism rates, and impacts of P. coffea releases on CBB populations under commercial field conditions and assess compatibility with Beauveria bassiana-based management programs.
Approach:
Phymastichus coffea colonies will be maintained at USDA ARS PBARC and optimized for mass production and field release. Rearing procedures will focus on maximizing parasitoid emergence, survival, and colony stability. Field releases of P. coffea will be conducted on commercial coffee farms in Kona and Ka’u across low-, mid-, and high-elevation production regions. Multiple release densities and release frequencies will be evaluated.