Red Palm Weevil

Rhynchophorus ferrugineus or Rhynchophorus ferrugineus or red palm weevil is a species of curculionoid coleopteran of the curculionoidae family native to tropical Asia. It is a weevil that mainly attacks coconut and palm trees, including the Canary Island and date palms.

Its adult life cycle is between 45 and 90 days. It makes perforations more than one metre long in the trunks, causing yellowing, wilting and death. It is a vector of the nematode Bursaphelenchus Cocophilus, which causes red ring disease, a threat to the palm tree industry in our country. The female lays between 300 and 500 eggs. After hatching, the yellow larvae, with strong mandibles, dig galleries from the axils of the leaves to the crown, and gradually increase in size until they form a cocoon, where they undergo metamorphosis and move on to the next stage. Once adult, it flies to other palm trees with wounds attracted by its scent to begin a new biological cycle, with more fertilisations. It has a great reproductive capacity, and can reach up to three generations per year.

This pest arrived on the Mediterranean coast more than 10 years ago, and nowadays several methods of control are in place:

• Biological, through nematodes and other parasites.
• Plant endotherapy, injections of phytosanitary substances that are translocated through the xylem in an acropetal direction.
• Applications of contact insecticides such as Diazinon, or systemic insecticides such as Imidacloprid or Thiamethoxan.
• Use of pheromone traps