“All of the coral trees are infected and dying,” she said during a press conference at Northern Marianas College.
According to Quintanilla, the insect lays its eggs inside the branches and stems of the trees, producing a chemical that disturbs the plant’s genetic code.
Instead of healthy leaves and sprouts, the trees will then produce small tumors, which will eventually kill the trees.
The wasp also feeds on the tree.
Agriculturist Isidro Cabrera said the wasp was introduced to the island two years ago.
“It’s probably from Tinian or Rota,” he said.
There may be thousands of these wasps living in a single tree, he added.
Natural death
According to Quintanilla and Cabrera, the best thing to do is to let all the infected trees die.
This will deprive the wasp of its habitat, and it will eventually die due to lack of food, Quintanilla said.
The extinction of the tree on island will also solve the problem with the fruit piercing moth, which eat the fruits of local crops, Cabrera said.
Like the gall wasp, the fruit piercing moth will disappear once all of the erythrina trees on island are gone, he added.
Once all the coral trees are gone, Quintanilla said they will re-introduce the species on island.
She said the CNMI should wait for several years to make sure that all infected trees are dead and that the wasp has been eliminated.
“Only if the island is [free] of wasps can we introduce new and healthy gaogao trees from the other islands,” she said.
The flowers of the gaogao tree are food to the endangered fruit bats.
