06-29-2014, 09:38 AM
The LFA on Maui have been mostly if not completely eliminated. The thing about Oahu is, the ones in this recent outbreak got there on hapuu logs shipped from Puna and spread around among a bunch of nurseries. But they wouldn't identify the nurseries or stop them from selling plants unless they were specifically identified as infested, so some undoubtedly got around.
They've pretty much been eliminated from the nurseries by now, but while they were checking them, they found that a gulch in Waimanalo behind several nurseries was completely infested with LFA. They don't disperse very quickly, so these must have been there for several years, presumably introduced onto one of the nurseries and then spread back into the gulch instead of on the nursery itself where it would be more noticed. But they have small colonies and aren't always noticed unless they start stinging you, so they may have been spreading from that spot one drip at a time so a while.
They've pretty much been eliminated from the nurseries by now, but while they were checking them, they found that a gulch in Waimanalo behind several nurseries was completely infested with LFA. They don't disperse very quickly, so these must have been there for several years, presumably introduced onto one of the nurseries and then spread back into the gulch instead of on the nursery itself where it would be more noticed. But they have small colonies and aren't always noticed unless they start stinging you, so they may have been spreading from that spot one drip at a time so a while.