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Red Palm Weevil, deadly plague in palms in Portugal

The red palm weevil, killer of palms by eating the insides, has spread from Asia to Arabia. Arriving in Spain (from Egypt) several years ago, it has arrived in Portugal, especially the Algarve.

It likes palms in general but prefers the phonix palms. When the first symptoms appear (falling over of the centre leaves), it is often too late for the palm to recover. As prevention pheromone traps can be installed. These will catch the wevils within 50 meter radius.

If you catch weevils in the trap it would be a good idea to treat your palms, in case the odd weevil went to your palm instead ( remember, one female weevil can lay up to 200 eggs). When weevils are already inside your palms, they can be killed by injecting the palm with a proper insecticide. The leaves can be sprayed with a systemic insecticide, which is enough when the palms are still very small.

If a palm is beyond recovery, the best thing is to remove it before the weevils have left it and spread to other palms. The remains should be burned, to kill all weevils still inside. This is very important to help control this pest, which has already killed millions of palms in other regions of the world.

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