Thread: The Poor Palms

That bleeding beetle is devastating most of the palms around here & our cat (Lu Lu) spotted one of the buggers trying to much its way into one of ours.
It died very soon after the warning and we now check daily for any new arrivals that may have spotted ours, mind you they are not that big so we do have half a chance.

Is this the Red Palm Beetle/Weevil I read about, it affects the Canary Date Palm ? and has spread along the coast Costa del Sol ?

Originally Posted by Val

Is this the Red Palm Beetle/Weevil I read about, it affects the Canary Date Palm ? and has spread along the coast Costa del Sol ?

Yes Val thats the bugger & they do not like the creepies spray from Mercadona

I am sure I have read that you should be spraying with some ( very expensive) liquid every 2 months !

I had a look but could find the one I read, I found this on Management of Palms. It was on icargoa.res.in/red-palm-weevil


MANAGEMENT

a) Avoid making cuts on the coconut stem.

b) Clean crown regularly.

c) Dig and turn the soil deeply around, the coconut trunk in the month of April-May. d) Pick up grubs and kill them.

e) Heavily infested trees should be cut down and destroyed along with the various stages of the pest.

f) Use of the pheromone trap can effectively bring down the population of the pest.

g) Wounds on the trees should be filled with a mixture of 10% carbaryl + sand (1:1).

h) Fill the leaf axils with l0 % carbaryl + sand (1: 1) as weevil stage shelters in the leaf axils.

i) Inject phosphamidon 20ml or monocrotophos 20ml in the topmost hole. The rest of the holes on the tree should be closed with cement prior to the treatment.

j) The young feeder root should be selected by digging around the tree trunk. The root is then given a slanting cut. The cut portion of the root is then immersed in the insecticidal solution kept in the polythene bags in such a way that the cut end is dipped up to the bottom of the polythene bag. The polythene bag is then tied with the help of jute string. The root absorbs the entire quantity within 4 days.

We have nearly 100 Phoenix Canariensis palms on our land. Assuming the worst, I am bringing on from seed other species to replace them if they succumb, the nearest tragedy is still some eight miles distant but they are definitely coming inland and I really don't think there is anything you can do to stop it long term. They do say that the female trees are more susceptible so we shall see as we have both.

Hi

Shouldn’t we be more aware of the devastation the Red Palm Weevil is causing?

Now I have a tree infested with these pests I have become more aware of the problem and started to look around me as I walk and drive about. I was shocked to see that all around us our trees are dying due to the infestation of this bug.

I have been asking local garden centres and specialists about this and they all admit it’s a real problem that does not have enough press or media coverage. The fact is there are things we can do to help prevent infestation and it doesn’t cost the earth. So I have added a page on my website livingonthecostas.com with information about the pest and what you can do. I have also found an industrial chemical suppliers in Orihuela who sell insecticide.

I welcome any information that might help people and will gladly add this to the site so just email me or PM me.

In the meantime if any journalists are reading this perhaps they can approach the free press and CBN to cover this.

we lost a few palms around our places because of this and pretty much all we have left are the pine trees. tall stumps of x palms covered with palstic bags

Originally Posted by Dublin13

we lost a few palms around our places because of this and pretty much all we have left are the pine trees. tall stumps of x palms covered with palstic bags

As far as I know, the stumps should be cut down & burnt as they are riddled with grubs, The ayuntamiento may well do this as a free service ???

take a look at livingonthecostas.com sthis tells you who to call and how to get compensation







Edit by Val ... Once I was going to let stay but twice in one thread no. Please adhere to the forum guidelines. Thank you. You can add the www to your signature.