Red Palm Weevil in California

[fruitlovers]

Most damaging pest worldwide of palms found in Laguna Beach, California. Turns out the larva is quite tasty to eat!
Overview of the Red Palm Weevil

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Oscar,

You won't image how devestating this pest(orange form) is here! Funchal is littered with dead 50+ year old Canary date palm's!

Some of the palm do recover when pesticides are applied to the crown in time!

But, what's really funny about this pest, it only attacks the Canary Date palm and not the Date palm-Phoenix dactylifera

BTW-I would dare that guy to eat them raw like this guy! DISGUSTING

Born Survivor - Rhino Beetle Larvae

[fruitlovers]

Oscar,

You won't image how devestating this pest(orange form) is here! Funchal is littered with dead 50+ year old Canary date palm's!

Some of the palm do recover when pesticides are applied to the crown in time!

But, what's really funny about this pest, it only attacks the Canary Date palm and not the Date palm-Phoenix dactylifera

BTW-I would dare that guy to eat them raw like this guy! DISGUSTING

Born Survivor - Rhino Beetle Larvae

I've heard also that this weevil has devasted the palms in Israel. But i think there it has attacked common date: P. dactylifera?

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

I don't know if Israel has both species of palm! But, if they don't have the P. canariensis they will use the P.dactylifera as a host!

In the Lido behind the shopping mall there are about 15 Date palm growing very well and producing huge loads of fruits, they are not bothered by this pest! Because, the red palm weevil prefer the P. canariensis as a primary host and of coutse if they kill all of P. canariensis they will most likely attack the Date palm in the future!
 

[fruitlovers]

I don't know if Israel has both species of palm! But, if they don't have the P. canariensis they will use the P.dactylifera as a host!

In the Lido behind the shopping mall there are about 15 Date palm growing very well and producing huge loads of fruits, they are not bothered by this pest! Because, the red palm weevil prefer the P. canariensis as a primary host and of coutse if they kill all of P. canariensis they will most likely attact the Date palm in the future!
 

Read that canariensis is main host plant in Meditarranean, but in middle east they certainly do damage dactylifera. Also i read that this weevil has been found in 2 islands in Caribbean: Aruba and Curacao. So wouldn't be surprised if it's in Florida soon. I suggest people in Florida learn the tell tale signs of beetle presence in their palms and how to treat them.

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

I don't know if Israel has both species of palm! But, if they don't have the P. canariensis they will use the P.dactylifera as a host!

In the Lido behind the shopping mall there are about 15 Date palm growing very well and producing huge loads of fruits, they are not bothered by this pest! Because, the red palm weevil prefer the P. canariensis as a primary host and of coutse if they kill all of P. canariensis they will most likely attact the Date palm in the future!
 

Read that canariensis is main host plant in Meditarranean, but in middle east they certainly do damage dactylifera. Also i read that this weevil has been found in 2 islands in Caribbean: Aruba and Curacao. So wouldn't be surprised if it's in Florida soon. I suggest people in Florida learn the tell tale signs of beetle presence in their palms and how to treat them.

I saw a vid couple of months ago on you tube...That in the middle east they are building a type of a x-ray machine to x-ray the palms for this pest! I will try to find the vid!

[Pancrazio]

According various sources this bug feeds on a very large amount of hosts.
Cocos nucifera and date palm, only to report the two palms most relevant for this forum.
But it is also reported on:
Areca catechu, Arenga pinnata, Borassus flabellifer, Calamus merillii, Caryota maxima, Caryota cumingii, Corypha gebanga, Corypha elata, Livistona decipiens, Metroxylon sagu, Oreodoxa regia, Phoenix sylvestris, Sabal umbraculifera, Trachycarpus fortunei, Washingtonia sp.
Even Agave americana and Saccharum officinarum have had infestation.
Here it's said that it will wipe all the palms of Rome before 2015.
As far as i know no effective cure exists, the insect being buried too deep in the stem of the palm to be killed easily with conventional methods.
Here you can see a palm attacked in Naples, Italy.

[happyisland]

Nasty stuff. They arrived in Aruba about a year ago, supposedly via Egypt (not sure how that happened) and have everyone freaked out. Regular wild coconut trees seem to be untouched so far, but I have a nearby neighbor with short stout ornamentals like in the picture posted above from Naples, and he lost all three in his front yard in a few months. The local agriculture department guy told me that the weevils spread so virally that the only proper way to dispose of an infested tree is to burn it in a trench.

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Here's the X-ray machine!!! Can't find the Original!!!

The PestDestinator - Red Palm Weevil Detection

[fruitlovers]

According various sources this bug feeds on a very large amount of hosts.
Cocos nucifera and date palm, only to report the two palms most relevant for this forum.
But it is also reported on:
Areca catechu, Arenga pinnata, Borassus flabellifer, Calamus merillii, Caryota maxima, Caryota cumingii, Corypha gebanga, Corypha elata, Livistona decipiens, Metroxylon sagu, Oreodoxa regia, Phoenix sylvestris, Sabal umbraculifera, Trachycarpus fortunei, Washingtonia sp.
Even Agave americana and Saccharum officinarum have had infestation.
Here it's said that it will wipe all the palms of Rome before 2015.
As far as i know no effective cure exists, the insect being buried too deep in the stem of the palm to be killed easily with conventional methods.
Here you can see a palm attacked in Naples, Italy.

There are treatments for this insect, both chemical and biological. The chemical treatment is to apply systemic poison into crown of tree. The biological treament is release of fungus that kills them. There are also very effective pheronome traps for attracting and killing them. The agave and sugar cane were used to feed these insects in a lab. The red palm weevil have never infected these plants in the wild.

[Pancrazio]

Hi Oscar.
I have heard around about treatments for this bug. To be honest, i haven't deal with this personally, but hearing report around, wihle some costly and invasive treatment can save a single plant from the infestation, they apparently aren't resolutive on a larger scale. And of course, the same plant can be attacked once, and once more from the bug in following days/months/years. I have also heard some nematode tratment wich seem to work, but as you can imagine even those don't block the infestation.
Regarding the feromone traps, for now they have bright and dark side. I have seen people often suggesting them as way to capure the bug, while other people advice aganist them because, if your zone isn't infested yet, they can drive the bugs towards the plants you want to protect. So they can be useful if you have an heavy infestation, but otherwise they can also increase the spread of the insect. This is what is happening here.
I don't know. It pains me to hear it has also reached the california, with all those wonderful palms there. I think will take some time before people will realize how dangerous this bug can be and in the meantime a lot of plant will be dead. See, this topic has been read by too few people, but in future it will be far more popular, i guess.

Nasty stuff. They arrived in Aruba about a year ago, supposedly via Egypt (not sure how that happened) and have everyone freaked out. Regular wild coconut trees seem to be untouched so far, but I have a nearby neighbor with short stout ornamentals like in the picture posted above from Naples, and he lost all three in his front yard in a few months. The local agriculture department guy told me that the weevils spread so virally that the only proper way to dispose of an infested tree is to burn it in a trench.

They also came here from egypt. Some nursery imported big palms from there, and the bug was in. Later from the nurseries it spreaded in the whole italy. Cold climate can kill this bug (sub-freezing temperature) but those also kill the palm... Anyway the damage has be more strong in the hotter parts of italy.
Also here they suggest to burn the attacked plants. Apparelty it is the only safe way to deal with the plant remainings.

[fruitlovers]

From little i've read it seems that dealing with adult weevils is much easier than dealing with larvae, which is inside the trunk of tree, so much more difficult to access.
BTW, i think in Papua New Guinea main plant attacked is the Sago Palm. I've heard there the natives on purpose damage the sago palm to attract the weevils to lay their eggs because they consider the larvae more of a gourmet delicacay than the sago palm itself. In Malaysia also the larvae is considered gourmet. Maybe you  should incorporate into Italian cuisine? 

[Pancrazio]

Ahahaha, i guess i'll have hard time making them accepted to italians, since the strange glance i see in most people when i say "mangos are the best fruit in the world". I mean, many of us aren't inclined to try new things, at least for food.
To me, my bug-eating career started and ended with snails, wich are used also here, not only in france, as traditional country dish. Tasty, but if you aren't used to them i undestand they can appear as unusual food.
Anyway, i don't plan to try them. Why i should? I prefer dates, anyway! 

[fruitlovers]

Ahahaha, i guess i'll have hard time making them accepted to italians, since the strange glance i see in most people when i say "mangos are the best fruit in the world". I mean, many of us aren't inclined to try new things, at least for food.
To me, my bug-eating career started and ended with snails, wich are used also here, not only in france, as traditional country dish. Tasty, but if you aren't used to them i undestand they can appear as unusual food.
Anyway, i don't plan to try them. Why i should? I prefer dates, anyway! 

Maybe with a little sphagetti sauce would be good? HAHAHA

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

What about Grub curry???

Fry the chopped onions, curry leaves with peanut oil...add GRUBS, paprika, cumin, coriander, bird's eye chilli, turmeric, sea salt,
Coconut cream...Basmati rice!

BTW this is my secret curry(Fish,meat, and chicken)...part of it ! NOT sharing it with NObody

I think the GRUB curry will be DELICIOUS... don't you think???
 

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Here's a Palm tree from B.Garden...it was saved in time!

[siafu]

Ahahaha, i guess i'll have hard time making them accepted to italians, since the strange glance i see in most people when i say "mangos are the best fruit in the world". I mean, many of us aren't inclined to try new things, at least for food.
To me, my bug-eating career started and ended with snails, wich are used also here, not only in france, as traditional country dish. Tasty, but if you aren't used to them i undestand they can appear as unusual food.
Anyway, i don't plan to try them. Why i should? I prefer dates, anyway! 

With a nice tomato sauce, the grubs might pass as gnocchi... 

[Pancrazio]

Lol, this tread has gone mad!
I see some future for them as delicacy only in sardinia. One famous cheese from there has living worm inside it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu .
Beside, now that i think about it, Vermicelli in italian means "little worms"...

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Lol, this tread has gone mad!
I see some future for them as delicacy only in sardinia. One famous cheese from there has living worm inside it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu .
Beside, now that i think about it, Vermicelli in italian means "little worms"...

Hi Pan,

I have seen that cheese either on ''No Reservations'' or ''Bizarre foods''! I can't remember!

That cheese must be over powering...from the look of it