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September 30, 2014 Contact:  Mayor Caldwell's Press Office, 768-5768 (Jesse Broder Van Dyke mobile: 489-0341)   City crews trained to eradicate little fire ant and coconut rhinoceros beetle   Hâlawa – The City and County of Honolulu held the first in a series of training sessions as part of an interagency effort to eradicate two alien pests from Oahu. The Caldwell Administration is partnering with the O'ahu Invasive Species Committee to help train city ground maintenance crews to find and eradicate the little fire ant and the coconut rhinoceros beetle.    Mayor Kirk Caldwell, City and County of Honolulu Agriculture Liaison Dr. Po-Yung Lai, and the O'ahu Invasive Species Committee held a press conference on September 30, 2014, at the Department of Facility Maintenance Hâlawa Corporation Yard to discuss the new partnership training program and city-wide efforts to eradicate the pests.   Nearly two dozen ground maintenance crewmembers attended the session provided by Chirsty Martin of the Oahu Invasive Species Committee.  The departments of parks and recreation, enterprise services, facility maintenance, planning and permitting, and the Board of Water Supply are participating.   Since the detection of the two invasive species, little fire ant (LFA) and coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB), on Oahu in December 2013, an eradication effort has been initiated at the State and Federal levels. Both LFA and CRB have expanded their respective ranges of infestation; the former to Mililani Mauka and the latter to the Campbell Industry Park.  The City and County of Honolulu is on alert in making sure these species do not invade to the properties under its control.  As such, a train-the-trainer program was proposed and the State-Federal Unified Command Team expressed its willingness to assist in the training program.   -END-