The coffee berry borer literally lives and breathes coffee. From the time it hatches as a larva until it dies as a beetle, it feeds exclusively on the coffee berry. The consequence is the destruction of coffee crops equivalent to 500 million dollars annually worldwide. However, a recently published study from Berkeley Lab and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) gives hope to affected coffee producers. The solution to the problem may lie in the belly of the beetle.
Fear of coffee plague
From its origins in Angola in Africa, the coffee berry borer has spread to almost every coffee-producing country in the world. Today, it is responsible for what is one of the coffee world's most feared epidemics. Thanks to its explosive ability to reproduce, an infestation can destroy as much as 80 per cent of a coffee crop. The female is the largest, strongest and longest-lived of the coffee-dependent beetles. She can even lay eggs without the man's involvement, which she does after boring into the coffee bean. In this case, it lays up to 50 eggs, 13 out of 14 of which become new, ready-to-breed lady beetles.
Inhumanly high caffeine tolerance
While caffeine is a deadly poison for other insects, the coffee berry borer can tolerate amounts of caffeine equivalent to an adult human drinking 500 cups of espresso in one day. Researchers at Berkeley Lab and the USDA hypothesised that it is not the beetles themselves, but the bacterial culture in their stomachs that is responsible for their "uninsectual" high caffeine tolerance. The theory was largely confirmed when colonies of coffee berry borers were reduced by 95% after being fed antibiotics. After further research on 14 bacteria found in the stomachs of the coffee-thirsty beetles, one stood out. The bacterium "Pseudomonas fulva" has a gene with a very special property: It can break down caffeine.
Vital stomach bacteria
The research results could be the first step towards chemical-free control of the coffee berry borer. Instead of using environmentally harmful pesticides in the fight against epidemic outbreaks, a future strategy could be to attack the beetle where it does the most damage: Right in the stomach. Because without its vital stomach bacteria, caffeine is just as toxic to the coffee berry borer as it is to most insects. Read more about the study at Berkeley Labs' websites.
