Saipan mealybug specimens sent to Guam

Specimens of the insect indigenous to Mexico called the papaya mealybug that have been found feasting on local papayas in a farm in As Teo are now being analyzed at the University of Guam laboratory.

Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Services agriculture consultant Isidoro Cabrera confirmed yesterday that at least four samples of the insect have been forwarded to Guam through NMC’s resident entomologist Joaquin Tenorio.

Cabrera said the bugs are a great threat to the papaya industry if it spreads across the islands, especially to Rota and Tinian. He said the mealybug came from Guam because the papaya industry on that island was attacked by the same pest in 2003. Thus the possibility of affecting neighboring islands such as Rota is not a far-fetched idea.

The Guam laboratory will be able to confirm if the insect sent is exactly the same insect that infested Guam in 2003.

Cabrera said, though, that the CNMI case is still isolated to one farm in As Teo, which is why there is no need to panic yet. He said he would begin inspecting the papaya farms on Saipan next week.

Agriculture consultant Roland Quitugua, together with Cabrera, discovered the pests two weeks ago during an ocular inspection at a site in As Teo for the papaya workshop held two weeks ago. Quitugua said that, although the case is still considered isolated, it may eventually affect the rest of the Commonwealth’s papaya industry if not eradicated soon.

Quitugua said they found out that the pests, Paracoccus marginatus, were eating through the crop in the As Teo farm.

He said the papaya mealybug could pose a threat to the local papaya industry and could mirror what happened to Guam’s own papaya industry. Cabrera said that NMC-CREES would still have to issue a pest alert as soon as the pests have been confirmed by Guam.

Quitugua provided leaflets describing the pests. The female adult mealybugs are wingless and about 3mm long with a yellowish body and body fluid.

“They are covered with a white wax with lateral and caudal wax filaments. Adult males are smaller, have wings and live for only a few days. Eggs are also yellowish and laid in a cottony egg sac,” he said.

There are over 5,000 papaya trees on Saipan alone.

According to reports, the papaya mealybug originated in Mexico. At some point, it jumped into the islands of the Caribbean and found its way to the U.S. mainland and to Guam by allegedly “hitchhiking” on some imported fruits.

Quitugua said that, if the pests are not controlled immediately, it could result in a horrid spread of infestation that could wipe out the entire papaya tree population of the Commonwealth.