Integrated control of trees and palms
Mechanical Sanitation
Mechanical Sanitation
Almost all of the palm trees eliminated in Spain due to an attack by Rinchophorus Ferrugineus could have been saved if they had been sanitized in time. The larva, born after the hatching of the eggs laid by the female at the base of the youngest leaves, is the one that with its jaws produces the damage inside, breaking tissues and creating galleries until it completes its biological cycle when manufacturing the cocoon. where it will pupate, and from which a new adult emerges that will not leave the host palm, and so on for several generations. When the females sense that there is no food for the next generation, it will be when they leave the already destroyed palm in a massive way looking for new specimens to host, thus producing a new infestation.
With a mechanical cleaning and sanitation operation we will remove all the damaged tissue, thus ending all the living
forms of red weevil present in the palm tree. In Phoenix Canariensis the palm tree dies when the larvae have completely pierced the terminal bud of the palm tree. We have had cases where even with 60% of the bud destroyed it has regenerated after sanitation, and the palm tree has fully recovered months later. In the case of the Phoenix Dactylifera and as in the P. Canariensis, the infestation can be produced by laying at the base of the most tender leaves of the central tuft. In this type of palm, there is also the case of attacks in the middle and lower area of the wall, this makes it especially dangerous, since in these cases the symptoms are much more difficult to detect and can lead to the separation of the Terminal bud of the trunk, which means the death of the palm tree. That is why we insist that constant inspection is essential to control this pest. Any palm recovered after sanitation must continue to be treated to prevent further attacks.
It is clear that the sanitation option is undoubtedly more interesting both economically and landscaping than the simple destruction of the palm tree at the slightest symptom that it presents. Since 2008 we have carried out more than 750 clean-ups with a success rate of more than 85%.
