Dying Palm Trees
 

Hi,

We have just arrived in Cartaya close to Ayamonte to find palm trees dying in the streets, we have six palm trees and the tallest one has just flopped over dead, we have visited just five minutes ago visited the town hall and they could not care less about the situation - I am livid.

If anyone has any information on who or where we can get the spray to kill these beetles it would be most helpful - I can´t tell you how sad it is to see all these dead palm trees and with the attitude the town hall have, it´s only going to get worse.

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

Hi

Marbella lost thousands a couple of years ago - we in Cádiz are losing some this year

Davexf

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

The authorities have not got to grips with it. They left them too long when they were dead as the red palm beetle then flies on to another healthy tree. We lost two mature trees. The beetles are massive like cockroaches. Read last week it is now spreading to Alicante region:(

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

Not so simple as just spraying yourself.
I watched the spraying of palm trees for this beetle take place. You need a 'cherry picker' to do the job and a drenching in chemical from above the tree for several minutes per tree and again a few months later. These were large old trees but must have been EXPENSIVE!

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

There is an epidemic all over Spain, around here the council used to cut them down and burn them for free, but there are so many they now charge.
There is not much you can do apart from spraying , but this is really is a waste because so many trees are affected.
There are previous threads on the subject, also type palm beetle into Google.

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

I used to pass a dead one nearly every day when I went to the shops. You could see the horrible beetles crawling on it. Was months before they cut it down.

One or two companies are leafleting claiming they have a cure for it, they don't.

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

We lost two before Christmas. The Ayuntamiento here, take them away for free and pay 80€ compensation for each metre of tree (based on trunk size).

As we lost 3m thay paid 240€ - that's more than our annual council tax bill!!

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

I'm assuming we are talking about the Rhynchophorus ferrugineus or Red Palm Weevil here?

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

Thats the one, grubs like a Wichiti, rolls itself in the palm hessian type thread and turns into a fully grown weevil. :eek:

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

Yeah, its kinda hard to control them, they are utterly devastating to many countries economies and can destroy a crop in no time. I understand that its very hard to treat and that the larvae need repeated treatment of some really unpleasant and noxious chemicals and thats not always easy to do, of course as always prevention is better than cure.

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

Once they have got hold they are very difficult to eradicate.

Prevention is always better than cure and one insecticide that can be used by direct application around the base of the tree is Confidor which is readily available in Spain. It can also be injected into the tree in areas of infestation.

Spraying is a last resort, very expensive and can be dangerous to anyone around as the amount of spray is very high and most of the insecticides used are pretty nasty.

It is normally only the date palms that are affected but there have been reports of other common palms like Washingtonia being affected.

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

Over 30 varieties of palms are so far susceptible to attack, including at least a dozen found in Spain.

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

We lost three in our garden, I don`t know if it is the grubs that eat the tree or the weevils on the way out.
One tree was about 3 mtrs high, first of all the new branches at the center started to fall sideways instead of reaching for the sky, and if you put your ear near the trunk you could actually hear munching.
The council cut them down and took them away, they cut it about half a mtr from the ground and there were channels about as fat as your little finger chewed through from the top.
Since then the last half mtr has rotted away and while chopping it away I came across live grubs and live weevils.
A Dutch guy I know has a yellow plastic bucket that he half fills with water, it has four holes in the lid and a packet of stuff that attracts the weevils to it, they land on the lid and fall in the water while trying to reach the bait.
He is catching about ten a week in it. :eek::eek:

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

If found a good article about them from Cyprus.

http://tinyurl.com/yc9vzbn

Re: Dying Palm Trees
 

Sadly mate its the larvae that do the damage, destroying the palms by fire is the best way to control them