Coconut Ecomuseum

Towards more effective and affordable coconut beetle traps! The simplest trap models can be marketed for less than ten US dollars and can even be made at home. Please read first the sections highlighted in yellow if you are in a hurry!

The information presented hereunder comes primarily from a confidential website created by Roland Bourdeix starting in September 2025 to document his research and technical trials aimed at improving trapping of Oryctes in Hawaiʻi and other regions. The original website was not indexed by search engines and remained invisible to the public. Since then, an e-Soleau filing and provisional French and United States patent applications have been made, clarifying the rights to the invention and allowing us to disclose a substantial part of the work.

The design of these new traps has been guided by two original principles:

A principle of radical simplification, so that the traps are extremely affordable, and very easy to manufacture and use.
A principle of cumulative synergistic effects. For example, if products A and B both attract insects, but A is more effective than B, product B is not discarded; instead, it is retained and used in combination with product A.

Photos from Hana Hou!, the in‑flight magazine of Hawaiian Airlines, December–January 2025–2026

We intend to collaborate with anyone willing to invest the effort to test, use, and improve these traps, regardless of their background, knowledge, or level of expertise. Our goal is to involve a broad community of active participants who share a commitment to addressing the CRB challenge. This collaboration is not limited to those working directly with palms; it can also include people who grow or care for other plants affected by CRB, as well as communities that wish to take an active role in protecting their landscapes and resources.

The main steps in the development and protection process are as follows:

August 2025. Invitation to Hawaiʻi by the University of Hawaiʻi West Oahu and by the NiU NOW! community and cultural movement of the Puʻuhonua Society. This visit allowed the inventor to appreciate the full extent of the damage caused in Hawaiʻi by the coconut rhinoceros beetle. Thanks to Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer, Konohiki for Kūlana o Kapolei, Director of Indigenous Education at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu, and to Indrajit Gunasekara, Director of the community coconut program of the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR).
November 2025. Filing of Soleau envelope DSO2025027961 for new trap designs. The Soleau envelope (now called e-Soleau) is a service of the French National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) that provides evidence that a creation existed on a specific date. It serves as proof of prior possession but does not grant exclusive intellectual property rights in the way that a patent or trademark does.
June 2026. Formal recognition by the employer that this is an “invention hors mission attribuable,” and that the employer does not wish to exercise its right of attribution. From that moment, the inventor became the holder of all rights attached to this invention and is free to protect, exploit, and promote it in his own name and for his own benefit.
June 2026. Filing of a provisional patent application with the French National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI): patent application no. FR2607667, filed on June 9, 2026.
June 2026. Filing of a provisional patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office: application no. 64/089,908, filed on June 13, 2026.

The title of these patent applications is:

Suspended flexible-body traps for capturing insects of the genera Oryctes, Scapanes, Augosoma and Rhynchophorus, pests of coconut palm, oil palm, date palm and ornamental palms.
Pièges suspendus à corps flexible pour la capture d’insectes des genres Oryctes, Scapanes, Augosoma et Rhynchophorus, ravageurs du cocotier, du palmier à huile, du palmier dattier et des palmiers ornementaux.

The various sections below describe the research conducted and the characteristics of the invention.

Section 1 — Pests and their palm hosts: economic impact, biology, and behavior

Section 2 — State of the art in trapping: existing trap types and their limitations

Section 3 — New suspended flexible-body traps: description and optimization

Section 4 — Outlook: communication, valorization, and research directions

References

Hawaiian airlines (2025). The future of niu. Hana Hou!, 28(6), 68–77. https://issuu.com/nmgnetwork/docs/hana_hou_v28_n_6_-_december-january

Many thanks to my friend Philippe Visitainer, who visited me in October 2025
and, having seen the traps, managed to keep the project confidential
during the period required to clarify the legal ownership of the invention.

Damage caused by coconut beetles in an old plot
at the CNRA Marc Delorme coconut research station in Côte d’Ivoire,
West Africa. Photo R. Bourdeix, 2025.

To view the objects in our personal collection, please visit the dedicated website. These objects are available exclusively for rental or acquisition by ecomuseums.

The complete title of this new manual is:

Click on the image
to download this manual!

On-farm reproduction of coconut palms for breeding, seednut production, and in-situ conservation. A coconut farmers’ guide to better conserve, breed, use and market their seednuts. By R. Bourdeix, V. Johnson and C. Pilotti.

An FAO-ITPFRFA-supported, SPC-led project just published a Farmers’ Manual entitled: "On-farm reproduction of coconut palms for breeding, seednut production, and in-situ conservation. A coconut farmers’ guide to better conserve, breed, use and market their seednuts. "

This manual proposes a participatory solution to remedy the ongoing global shortage of quality coconut seednuts.

Most improved coconut varietal production is still conducted by national agricultural institutions, with little private-sector involvement. In most cases, improved seednuts are produced in volumes too scant to supply demand and sold at unrealistically high prices, in a market where farmers often wait months or years before accessing the planting material. Over millennia and despite biological constraints, farmers have created a wealth of coconut diversity. With little understanding of coconut reproduction biology, their on-farm selections are relatively ineffective over the short term. The varieties currently planted differ little from those they have been cultivating for centuries. For seednuts produced under natural, open pollination, the mother palm’s identity is known, but not that of the father palm. Often, less than 10% of the offspring reproduce the desired parental type and traits. We recommend a dual strategy based on 1) farmers’ seednut production, after being trained to use simple and inexpensive pollination techniques, and 2) establishing larger seed gardens to produce hybrids on a commercial scale, which will have higher production costs but will ensure a regular and large supply of seednuts. Knowledge of coconut reproductive biology is a key factor for conservation and breeding by farmers. In the manual, we provide background on simple, alternative methods of controlled pollination suitable for farmers. These untested methods need to be fully developed and validated in the framework of new participatory projects involving farmers, scientists extensionists and the private sector. Information availability and accessibility are crucial for conservation and use of coconut varieties. This includes developing illustrated varietal catalogues, and exchanging knowledge on variety classification, reproductive biology, and seednut production methods. We also introduce the coconut eco-museum concept, combining tourism, agriculture, education, and business. Teaching farmers to produce their own seednuts will increase their acceptance of hybrids produced elsewhere.

To see and download this manual please Click on this link:
https://www.spc.int/digitallibrary/get/wk5u9
or you can also Click on the link and cover page of the manual at the top of this post.

Towards more effective and affordable coconut beetle traps!

The 2025 Manual "Reproduction of coconut palms for breeding and seednut production", for farmers and gardeners!