Dear Nexonr,
Towards the end of last year I gave our small palm tree (It’s one of those ones where the leaves grow out of the pineapple shaped bit on the ground) it’s last prune and after a while the fronds started turning brown and eventually fell off leaving just the stump. I thought I may have over pruned it.
However no new growth appeared so I decided it had died and attacked the stump with a chain saw. The stump turned out to be soaking wet and rotten. I cut the stump to ground level and discovered a lot of big yellow bugs in the roots (I attach a photo of a small one).
I put the photo on face book and a friend responded and told me about a gardener, who I already knew, was going around the estate spraying palm trees to kill any eggs which may have been laid by a beetle, which I now understand is a «Picado Rojo» beetle.
Apparently the female beetle lays over 200 eggs at a time and the bugs hatch out and eat the roots of the trees, killing them.
I remember there was an article in Nexonr a while ago about a weevil that that was killing trees in Spain. So I contacted the gardener and after looking at the root he said that it had to be sprayed to kill the bugs.
All the remains of the tree including the fronds had to be bagged and taken away and burned. We removed as much root as we could and found more bugs He sprayed the root and the surrounding soil. Then covered it with soil and sprayed the soil again.
He is officially licenced to perform this treatment. He needed my details and NIE number to inform the forestry commission about the infestation and when and where he destroyed the remains.
Regards Anonymous
We want to thank our anonymous reader for this information about a pest which is widespread in Spain and responsable for the destruction of countless palm trees. The presence of this pest must be registered with the authorities so they can deal with a possible plague.
