Vanilla plants threatened by coconut lice • TNTV Tahiti Nui Television

Aspidiotus destructor, also known as the transparent coconut whitefly or coconut louse, is a dreaded parasite that, as the name suggests, primarily attacks coconut trees but will also attack vanilla plantations.

“It is omnivorous, so that means it can live on a lot of plants. It grows not only on coconut trees, but also on banana trees, avocado trees and other fruit trees» explains Engineer Timeri Atuahiva, a plant pathologist at Vanille Tahiti. “It’s a shelled, wax-based whitefly. When the insect becomes an adult, the wax hardens. That’s why it’s so difficult to combat this insect.”.

Like other vanilla growers, Marie-Claude Raapoto, a vanilla grower in the commune of Toumara, had never heard of the coconut louse. That’s why EPIC Vanille offers training to explain to vanilla growers how to identify the parasite and, above all, how to combat it.

If downy mildew (a disease caused by a fungus) is already causing pod drop, outreach and awareness among vanilla growers in the face of this new threat becomes crucial indeed.