Ohia trees are dying rapidly, Why?

[pbmaise]

Justin,
I reviewed this thread and found the problem has largely been ignored for years.

Gypsy started it 1.5 years ago

He said about 80% of Ohia around his house were dead.

He said this has slowly been happening for 4 years

5.5 years is a long time to only have a suspect fungus and no reason.

Researching the web more, I found Ceratocytis is a problem for cacao production.

Ceratocystis fimbriata lives in soil and can cause relatively sudden tree death. The fungus In Brazil has been recognised increasingly since
1998 and has been associated elsewhere with drought.

When a tree is infected or dies, Xyleborus beetles
bore into the branches. They push out from their tunnels frass. It is a light, powder and contains viable
inoculum of the fungus, which may be spread by wind.
This invasive beetle first arrived in US in 2002.


http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xyleborus_glabratus

This changes the odds in favor of Ceratocytis because a new invasive species is already causing tree deaths on the mainland.

If the bettle can be found in Hawaii, especially on millions of dead Ohia, then we basically solved the question.