The coffee berry borer is the worst insect pest in coffee cultivation. Known in Spanish as Broca, in Latin as Hypothenemus hampei, and in English as Coffee Berry Borer (CBB), this beetle is responsible for annual damages exceeding 500 million US dollars (Infante, 2018). While this sounds abstract, it concretely means the loss of large portions of the harvest, which repeatedly affects small producers in particular. The coffee berry borer eats its way into a coffee fruit, multiplies there, and destroys the coffee bean from the inside.
In this article, we report on how the coffee berry borer reproduces, what measures can be taken, and what damage it causes.
Living in the Coffee Bean
There are those guests who never leave the café. They arrive first in the morning, claim a spot with their laptop, and type away until evening. They drink two large lattes throughout the day. The coffee berry borer is extreme in two respects. It lives completely inside the coffee bean and leaves it, if at all, only to fly to the next one nearby. To make matters worse, this busy little borer multiplies on site. It doesn't drink two coffee drinks; in the end, the coffee bean is completely hollowed out from the inside.
Among coffee berry borers, the females clearly have the upper hand. They preferably bore into the developing green coffee cherries starting 120 days after flowering. The entry point is usually the end opposite the stem. Using their ovipositor, the insect lays up to 3 eggs per day over 20 days. After a rest period, the process starts again. Up to 120 eggs are laid in this manner by a single female coffee berry borer.
The mother borer and her busy offspring consume the cherry pit completely. Once fully grown, the offspring continue to multiply happily among themselves. While the males never leave the cherry, the young females soon set out on their way to the next one. The move takes place when the old cherry no longer provides food and breeding material. Via flight, the coffee berry borer travels distances of up to 500 meters.
Spread and Activities
Originally from Central Africa, the coffee berry borer is now found worldwide in almost all coffee-growing countries. It was discovered in Indonesia in 1908 and later in Brazil. From there, it spread throughout South and Central America.
Studies show that the coffee berry borer spreads particularly well in lower elevations. Individual trees show heavier infestation, as does the overall infestation density. The same study also found that infestation is much higher on established coffee plantations than, for example, in wild-growing gardens with lower planting density.
The spread of coffee berry borers is also more pronounced on shaded plantations, as the insect prefers certain humidity levels. On the other hand, the natural enemy and fungus Beauveria Bassiana also grows better in this climate, functioning as a natural insecticide.
Cherries left on the tree or those that fall to the ground are a breeding ground for the spread of the coffee berry borer.
Control of the Coffee Berry Borer
Many factors play a role in controlling the coffee berry borer. In particular, the planting density, climate, and farm management are important. To effectively combat the coffee berry borer, attention must also be paid to the annual cycle, especially flowering, cherry development, and harvesting methods.
Various methods are suitable for control. Ethanol traps are useful for attracting and catching coffee berry borers. The alcohol in a cut plastic bottle deceives the coffee berry borers into thinking they've found a certain ripeness stage of coffee cherries. Instead of a feast, the coffee berry borers face a full intoxication with no happy ending. However, the traps are less suitable for effectively decimating coffee berry borer infestations. They are better suited for taking stock of the actual spread status (which is then extrapolated).
The most important tool for controlling a coffee berry borer infestation is the regular harvesting of under-ripe, over-ripe, and dried-out coffee cherries before the actual harvest begins. These selective operations are labor-intensive and correspondingly costly, but essential for ensuring harvest quality.
The endoplasmic fungus Beauveria Bassiana is a natural and organic remedy for effectively controlling coffee berry borers. Through targeted application to affected plants, the coffee berry borers are parasitized and killed from within.
In addition to the fungus, there are several natural enemies of the coffee berry borer, such as other parasitic insects. These include the African-origin colleague Cephalonomia stephanoderis.
For the final quality of the coffee, it is crucial at what stage intervention occurs. If the coffee berry borer is stopped before multiplication in the cherry, the sensory impact is minimal. A single visual puncture alone is not considered a serious defect in the physical evaluation of green coffee, and the coffee can still https://kaffeemacher.ch/crema-definition-spezialitaetenkaffee/">Spezialitätenkaffee be.
Multiple punctures and the loss of larger amounts affect the roasting of the coffee as well as aging. When multiple punctures are present, the sensory quality of a coffee is also extremely compromised.
Hawaii Launches Wasp Experiment Against Coffee Berry Borer
In an innovative approach to controlling the coffee berry borer (CBB), a harmful insect threatening coffee plantations on the Hawaiian islands, researchers are now using the wasp Phymastichus coffea. This tiny insect, barely visible to the naked eye, could be the solution Hawaiian coffee farmers have been waiting for.
Phymastichus coffea is a parasitoid – an organism that ultimately kills its host (in this case, the coffee berry borer). The wasp uses the coffee berry borer as a host for its larvae. This specific type of biological pest control has already proven successful in Central and South America, particularly in Colombia.
Since 2018, live specimens of the wasp have been allowed to be brought to Hawaii under strict quarantine conditions. Researchers have extensively tested the wasp to ensure it has no negative effects on native insect species. The tests have confirmed that P. coffea does not attack native insects and even shows potential parasitic activity against the Tropical Nut Borer, another pest threatening macadamia nuts.
Researchers now plan to release thousands of these wasps in coffee-growing areas throughout Hawaii. The wasps are expected to establish themselves in the wild and maintain their populations independently. In the coming months, they will be released on the Big Island and possibly also on Maui and Oʻahu.
Similar approaches have already been tried in Colombia and other countries. A Forschungsprojekt">study published in the Journal of Pest Science indicates that the wasp essentially parasitizes the desired coffee berry borers and not genetically more distant ones.
Conclusion on the Coffee Berry Borer
Once again, it is tragic that the coffee berry borer is a challenge that can be effectively combated with financial resources on the farm and the necessary knowledge. Unfortunately, especially the former is often unavailable, which is why quality and entire harvests are unnecessarily lost.
Controlling the coffee berry borer is one of the simplest measures to broadly improve the quality of the coffee harvest. Particularly noteworthy: organic measures and targeted farm management are just as effective here and much cheaper than synthetic products.
Sources and Further Reading
More on the Coffee">Berry Borer, MDPI
Pest">Management Strategies Against the Coffee Berry Borer, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Biological">control of the coffee berry borer: Main natural enemies, control success, and landscape influence, Science Direct
Vega, F. E., Infante, F. & Johnson, A. J. The genus Hypothenemus, with emphasis on H. hampei, the coffee berry borer in Bark Beetles: Biology and Ecology of Native and Invasive Species (eds Vega, F. E. & Hofstetter, R. W.) 427–494 (Academic Press 2015). Google">Scholar
Observing the devastating coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) inside the coffee berry using micro-computed tomography, Nature
">Damon A. A review of the biology and control of the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei(Coleoptera: Scolytidae) Bull. Entomol. Res. 2000;90:453–465. doi: 10.1017/S0007485300000584.<PubMed>"> <CrossRef>"> <Google">Scholar>
