Preventive methods
April 29th, 2008 Posted in Management methods
Prevention is better than cure. So it is always advantageous to restrict the entry of the weevil stages into the palms. As a prophylactic measure, young palms may be soaked with a pesticide at periodic intervals. This will kill the hidden adults in the palm crowns and also any pest stages present in crevices and damaged tissues.
1. Soaking or drencing method
2. Cultural practices
It is very interesting to note that the cultural practices followed by coconut and date palm farmers/growers vary widely in different countries and regions. During my travel in Thailand, I noticed a place with tall coconut palms with most of their leaves pruned as seen in the picture below. Only 3-5 inner leaves were left on the palms and the palms presented a pathetic sight. No doubt it is not a common practice but it should be avoided by all. In coconut it is always recommended to allow maximum leaves so that the annual nut yield is fairly good and economical. One must avoid premature cutting of leaves and if a leaf has to be cut, care should be taken to cut only the outer most one or two leaves with 2-3ft of leaf bases intact. The leaf bases will slowly dry up and drop off in due course of time. There are a couple of advantages in this cultural practice. One is that there is no injury as such to the palm and the second one is that it prevents the entry of newly hatched larvae of Red Palm Weevil into the plant. The long leaf base or petiole was found to act as a barrier for the early instar grubs which find it difficult to tunnel up to the soft tissues of the stem. So it is advised that farmers and growers should follow this method to prevent the Red Palm Weevil attack in coconut palms.
3. Phytosanitation
4. Plant Quarantine
5. Pheromone Trapping System
2 Responses to “Preventive methods”
By Barb on May 18, 2008
Dear Dr Vidyasagar, Many thanks for all your help. I promised to update you last year on all developments regarding our palms, here in Southern Spain. You may recall that we were unable to obtain the exact chemicals that you advised and so initially we used chlorpyrifos 48% p/v (480 g/L) Brand Name Dursban 48. And since our first contact with you we have now treated our palms 3 times, via soaking rather than spraying. The last treatment my husband used was with a mixture of DURSBAN 48 with another product - Brand name PUXIS Composicion Diazinon 24% p/v (240 g/l).
After the second treatment in January we found a Weevil in our pool, it was laden with eggs and we don’t know whether it came from our trees or was on its way to our trees!
We can regretfully report that in the Mijas Costa region alone, according to reports from the Town Hall, there are in excess of 3,000 affected palms waiting to be removed for disposal. However, we will continue to spread the word and hope that the treatment that we are using will be sufficient to protect our own palms.
My husband has converted a 5 litre spray by adding approx. 3 metres of 1/4 inch copper pipe, due to 1/4 inch pipe being too flexible on its own, it is run through a length of approx. 1/2 inch pipe to maintain rigidity and provide strength. The 1/4 pipe extends beyond the strengthening pipe by about 1 foot and a bend is made at the end so that it can ne hooked into the centre of the palm/crown) to enable him to pump the liquid into the centre of the palm. The beauty of this method is that the chemical is directed accurately and there is no overspray. I hope that this information may be of assistance to others.
Your website is most helpful and I have already started to spread the word.
Best regards
By admin on May 20, 2008
Thank you very much for the feedback. I am delighted to know that you are doing very well and trying to save your palms. The pictures you sent are good and I really appreciate the pains taken by your family to modify the pesticide applicator with a long hose to reach the crown. I will be really happy if you can spread this method of soaking/pouring crowns with pesticide rather than high or low pressure spray from outside which really pollutes the environment with wind drift and spillage. As from your report, the situation is alarming in your area and there is an urgent need for the local authorities and the private NGOs like Rotary club or Lions club or such similar body to take a lead and bring awareness among the people of the region. It would be very nice if the local ministry or municipality conduct some special training to the field staff was well as progressive growers or leaders.
I will appreciate if you pass on your knowledge on this pest to your friends and neighbors so that they in turn can pass on to others. Your experiences can be brought to the notice of others through the red palm weevil blog.