Lagniappe

According to most of the news reporting sites in my google search :

Customs and Border Protection officials recently found a potentially destructive pest in a shipment of organic bananas at the Port of Gulfport believed to be previously unseen in the United States.
The fuzzy, wormlike creature from Colombia was sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for identification. Experts identified the insect as Faustinus rhombifer Champion (Curculionidae), part of a species that feeds on a variety of plants.

Officials would not name the companies that grew and shipped the bananas, but sent the entire load back to Colombia.

The CBP's Virginia Dabbs said inspectors often find pests, but this one was significant because it hasn't previously been reported in the U.S.

Chironex

Maybe they should set these loose on the cocaine fields in Colombia.

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Scot

Lagniappe

Then they would just have a new fad....like puttin' the worms in tequila to make..... er.....coca-tila. Darn kids and their fashionable narcotics

lorax

Crap crap crap. That's bad news for Ecuadorean banana prices too - customs normally assumes that pests in Colombian crops are also present in Ecuadorean ones, even if there's no good evidence of that.

Notwithstanding which, it's a beetle that's not found in our territory - it's primarily Central American in distribution.

stumpy4700

Sounds like bad news for EVERYONE...

Richard

It's probably not bad news for folks who just stocked up on new 'naner plants!

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Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

bepah

Does it feed on bananas? The article was exactly clear. I know little about this bug. Are there any entomologists on this board?

Thanks!

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John Case
Rookie Gardener, Veteran Drinker

lorax

Yes, it eats bananas, although its primary foods are more towards the Solanaceae. Fairly voracious little buggers, really. The grubs do far more damage than the adult beetles.

JoeReal

We have developed a product to control such a pest in Ecuador. We collaborated with one Ecuadorean scientist and he will be using the GETControl product (aka AZControl ) after testing its effectiveness. He has ordered 5,000 liters of our GETControl product which will be shipped soon to help Ecuadoreans on a larger farm scale. We had field trials of the GETControl product in Ecuador last year and the results are excellent. GETControl is like AZ41, also non-toxic and certified organic, although slightly more expensive but specific for bananas and tropical crops that deals with related problems in a tropical climate. We can't sell that one yet in the USA, we still need to file bureaucratic paper works, although it is manufactured in the USA.

lorax

Oh, that's yours? GETControl is fantastic! No more banana borer beetles for me, nosireee Bob.

JoeReal

lorax, it is still called AZControl at this point. The main ingredients are more expensive than AZ41 and we are negotiating heavily with various sources of materials to bring the prices down... So at this point, it is still an order subject to negotiation. We want our customers to have the lowest price we can get them.