I found some useful information on www.livingonthecostas.com - we are going over next week and the first thing I will do is check my trees!!! It sounds as though the local councils are being a bit slow on the uptake, there are so many trees where we are, if they were lost it would have a huge impact.

I've been sent a pdf on the Red Palm Weevil - the Picudo Rojo - in Spanish if anyone wants a copy...

We have a few of the palm trees with the base like a massive pineapple.

The largest is dying I think.The base stinks and is full of disgusting larvae. Its a big palm.

I can only guess that these weevils are the problem and there is no hope for the tree and possibly all the palms around us on our estate.

Will see what the ajuntament says.

Sounds like it, usually the lower branches droop and the new centre shoots join them soon after.

The only chance you have is to drill holes in the base and inject large quantities of Confidor.

A friend had this problem and after lots of effort did save it. It was so bad you could hear the grubs eating it!

He was very lucky then, when you can hear the crunching and the new shoots start to droop that is usually the end.

I had to cut down three palm trees last week after the inside green leaves fell out. There's a nasty smell from them as well. I photographed the weevil (on Spanish Shilling).

Can you buy confidor at a garden centre.

The weevils are disgusting in the pineapple base now.weve tried allsorts on it including fire,which we cant do now.sulfumant,bleach etc.

The smell is getting worse all the time.

You can buy Confidor but unless you buy a large bottle (1 litre) it works out expensive.

If the tree has had it it needs to be dug up, taken away and burned.

Can this be used as a preventative or is there something else?

My palms look ok but this is very worrying as have lots of them.

We had a leaflet recently advertising preventative treatment.Didnt take too much notice as our tree is beyond help.

Sorry cant help more but it is a real problem.You just cant kill the bugs.Had one yesterday walking around on the pineapple bit thru bleach and sulfumant.

He looked healthy enough to me.

Vile.

Yes it can. It is a systemic insecticide and as such is absorbed by the tree and will remain effective for at least a month.

As I said, it's expensive in the sort of bottles you get in the Viveros made by Bayer, but it is available as the basic insecticide under the chemical name Imidacloroprid if you go to one of the agricultural suppliers at a much lower cost.

Our local garden centre told us that confador was not effective against the palm beetle. There are companies on the CDS advertising preventative treatments but heard they are useless. One golf club who used them lost around 10. Problem is you don't know you have it until it's too late.

Well they are wrong. It is used worldwide as an effective solution.

A simple Google search of "red palm beetle confidor" will come up with many recommendations.

They only used to eat the date type palm trees, but in our garden we have lost one of the pineapple type palms and it looks like a second one is suffering too now.

I know people that have paid lots of money to have them sprayed regular., but they have still died