Ohia trees are dying rapidly, Why?

[Midnight Rambler]

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Originally posted by carley

Hi,
I am new to punatalk, just been reading...but have a suggestion for the dying ohia trees.
a while back(do not know how many years) a bug was introduced to kill the rose aples trees.
This bug is killing the ohia as well as our grape leaves. It is a small bug black that comes just before it gets dark to our lanai, and the ohia forest we live in. Not sure why it attacks some trees and not others.

Why isn't the university talking about this i wonder?

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There is no bug (assuming you mean an actual insect) killing rose apple. The rose apple trees were all killed by the rust fungus, Puccinia psidii variously called ohia rust or guava rust. It was introduced to Hawaii accidentally on cut eucalyptus twigs (the kind that are included in floral arrangements).

It only attacks plants in the myrtle family, which includes ohia, mountain apple, Java plum, guava, eucalyptus, and rose apple, but not grapes. Different strains have varying degrees of virulence towards different plant species; the one we have here kills rose apple and our native nioi, and damages and occasionally kills ohia seedlings; it can sometimes infect but not severely damage mature ohia, and has little effect on others.

The small black bugs that periodically fly around in swarms at dusk are usually reproductive ants (mostly males). They drove me nuts because they would usually be out right at the time I was biking home.