Rubber-Eating Beetles Return to Catalina
By: Taylor Hill | Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:00:00 AMLast updated: Friday, May 14, 2010 10:20:00 AM
SANTA CATALINA ISLAND — As Catalina enjoys the warming trend of spring and summer, a familiar foe has returned to wreak havoc in Avalon.
Photo by: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural HistoryBeetle Trouble – The “lead cable borer” beetle has returned to Santa Catalina Island this spring. The recent change in the bug’s diet from dead trees to golf cart fuel lines and fuel pump hoses is causing leaks and headaches in Avalon.
Scobicias declivis, a tiny beetle that is also known as the “lead cable borer,” was first discovered on the island in the 1980s and is known to dig round holes in dying tree trunks to lay its eggs. Last June, the .35-inch-long critters suddenly changed their diet, opting instead for rubber and plastic products — including automotive and golf cart fuel lines, and portable gasoline tanks.
“This year, they are a little bit worse,” said Avalon fuel dock supervisor Tomas Moreno. “They hang out at the regular gasoline pumps on the hoses — but not on the diesel — and they put a perfect pinhole in them, like a termite. And then, the hose leaks.”
Dr. James Hogue, manager of biological collections at California State University, Northridge, properly identified the beetles last year, and he has struggled to find any studies of other beetles with similar tendencies.
“The only thing I could find even referring to rubber-boring beetles was an article from over 100 years ago mentioning a related species going into rubber hoses … and it was in French,” Hogue said.
The bugs now being spotted in Avalon are actually a brand-new batch of beetles from the same species, as the eggs laid in dead trees last season emerge as adults during spring and early summer.
While no one is certain what caused the beetles to switch from gnawing on wood to rubber and plastic, Hogue believes certain fumes coming from gas lines are similar to fumes given off by dead and dying trees.
“They’re not really eating the rubber: They just chew a hole in it to lay their eggs, kind of treating it like a dead tree,” Hogue said. The beetles die upon coming in contact with gasoline — but by then, the damage is done.
So far, the beetles have been content to stay on land and prey on fuel station pump hoses, and car and golf cart fuel lines. However, visiting boaters should be wary of the pesky insects, too.
“I haven’t heard of any boats being damaged, but the beetles do like those plastic portable marine fuel tanks,” Moreno said.
Moreno, who sees the beetles flying around his gas pumps all day, noted that spraying detergent on the pumps can help fend off the pests for a time. “But they still come back,” he added.
By: Taylor Hill | Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:00:00 AMLast updated: Friday, May 14, 2010 10:20:00 AM
SANTA CATALINA ISLAND — As Catalina enjoys the warming trend of spring and summer, a familiar foe has returned to wreak havoc in Avalon.
Scobicias declivis, a tiny beetle that is also known as the “lead cable borer,” was first discovered on the island in the 1980s and is known to dig round holes in dying tree trunks to lay its eggs. Last June, the .35-inch-long critters suddenly changed their diet, opting instead for rubber and plastic products — including automotive and golf cart fuel lines, and portable gasoline tanks.
“This year, they are a little bit worse,” said Avalon fuel dock supervisor Tomas Moreno. “They hang out at the regular gasoline pumps on the hoses — but not on the diesel — and they put a perfect pinhole in them, like a termite. And then, the hose leaks.”
Dr. James Hogue, manager of biological collections at California State University, Northridge, properly identified the beetles last year, and he has struggled to find any studies of other beetles with similar tendencies.
“The only thing I could find even referring to rubber-boring beetles was an article from over 100 years ago mentioning a related species going into rubber hoses … and it was in French,” Hogue said.
The bugs now being spotted in Avalon are actually a brand-new batch of beetles from the same species, as the eggs laid in dead trees last season emerge as adults during spring and early summer.
While no one is certain what caused the beetles to switch from gnawing on wood to rubber and plastic, Hogue believes certain fumes coming from gas lines are similar to fumes given off by dead and dying trees.
“They’re not really eating the rubber: They just chew a hole in it to lay their eggs, kind of treating it like a dead tree,” Hogue said. The beetles die upon coming in contact with gasoline — but by then, the damage is done.
So far, the beetles have been content to stay on land and prey on fuel station pump hoses, and car and golf cart fuel lines. However, visiting boaters should be wary of the pesky insects, too.
“I haven’t heard of any boats being damaged, but the beetles do like those plastic portable marine fuel tanks,” Moreno said.
Moreno, who sees the beetles flying around his gas pumps all day, noted that spraying detergent on the pumps can help fend off the pests for a time. “But they still come back,” he added.