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Beetle On My Palm


Kathryn

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Thanks for the link. My weevil looks a little different, black dot pattern on front end is different and back end is solid black versus striped. I've captured him just in case he would do damage. Are there any good weevils? I don't like to kill anything if I don't have to.

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Kathryn,

It looks like a palm weevil to me, the good thing is the larvae are edible. I'm not positive on the id, but if it is large, that's probably the one.

                   Regards, Mike

http://enature.marinopenspace.org/fieldgu....D=18538

"In Asia and Africa, Corypha and Borassus palms are deliberately wounded to attract native species of Rhynchophorus to the palms.

Why? The larvae are considered a delicacy."

Zone 5? East Lansing MI

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As far as I know all weevils feed on vegetation of some sort, obviously it may be feeding on wild plants but I know of no weevil that is beneficial in the garden. So I'd squash it!

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The only good thing about weevils is the noise they make when you step on them. Crunccccch

Resident in Bristol UK.

Webshop for hardy palms and hybrid seeds www.hardy-palms.co.uk

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That sucker is a Sabal Palm weevil, native! They kill palms! Did you see the ones in the post about Mediteranian palms getting kilt?

Were you trimming palms when he showed up????

I DIG PALMS

Call me anytime to chat about transplanting palms.

305-345-8918

https://www.facebook...KenJohnsonPalms

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Kathryn, I am actually a fifth degree white belt in karate. Did you want me to come over and kill it?

Len

Vista, CA (Zone 10a)

Shadowridge Area

"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are."

-- Alfred Austin

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Thanks to all who responded. I’ve looked at too many weevils on the web today – hopefully I won’t have any nightmares tonight.

The markings don’t exactly match any of the pictures of the palm weevil. I found another black and red weevil – the bromeliad weevil, but the markings still don’t exactly match.

I wasn’t trimming anything when I found him. I was sitting in my hammock this morning and saw him on a Pritchardia hildebrandii. There was no damage on the palm – at least not from the bug; there is some frost damage from this winter.

There are several other palms in the immediate area – Livistona decora, Phoenix roebelenii, Chamaedorea radicalis, Dypsis decipiens, Ravenna rivularis, Livistona chinensis, Rhapis excelsa, Beccariophoenix madagascariensis, Wodyetia bifurcata, Dypsis lastelliana, Archontophoenix purpurea, Coccothrinax species and Cryosophila species, some of which are in pots. I don’t see any damage on these either. All of these have been in this area for at least two years. I did move a few of the pots around during the last few days.

I sent a picture to the LSU Ag Center. They responded that it was the palm weevil and that another one was found in Ascension Parish, which is just a few parishes away, on a palm that came from Florida. I will be giving it to them on Monday for identification. I’ll post the response.

Len - please come kick it's butt - it is freaking me out. My cats want to get to it, but they will just play with it.

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Kathryn, ditto on what everyone else said, it's Rhynchoporus cruentatus, and the paterns are variable on individuals.

It's the larvae, not the adults, that do the damage, and they can tunnel into the heart and nuke a plant in short order.

The males are usually attracted to stressed plants and release pheromones to attract females to the site.....sometimes the larvae can be heard chewing when the infestation is far along.

I'm sure you will want to wait for the recommendations from the proffesionals, but i have had some good results with Merit, not only as a soil drench but in the crown as well.

Sad to say, this will only stop the larvae from becoming adult weevils and infecting other plants, but very little for the infected palm if the infestation is well under way.

Good Luck with it.

Rusty Bell

Pine Island - the Ex-Pat part of Lee County, Fl , USA

Zone 10b, life in the subs!...except when it isn't....

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Is it possible to use a persistent systemic insecticide like imidacloprid to guard against this weevil? It gives long lasting control of root-eating weevils.

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Is it possible to use a persistent systemic insecticide like imidacloprid to guard against this weevil? It gives long lasting control of root-eating weevils

It has worked for me as a therapeutic measure......imidacloprid travels through the phloem of the plant in the sap and can stay in the tissue for at least 6 months peak (sometimes 12 months), but theres no reason why it wouldnt give some measure of control in prevention. It would depend on the amount injested by the larvae....but that may be offset by their small size.

I would worry about any stressed trees first.

Although if only one tree is affected, erradicating an early infestation may be all that is needed.

Rusty Bell

Pine Island - the Ex-Pat part of Lee County, Fl , USA

Zone 10b, life in the subs!...except when it isn't....

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Hey Kathryn, I'm from Baton Rouge and went to LSU, took some Hort classes, graduated in Dairy Food Technology, but nothing in Entomology. Sounds like most folks are in agreement with what it is. When you mentioned that one was in Ascension parish you said it had come in from FL. Are these not native to the area?

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Dear Kate  :)

please dont waste time any further,kindly destroy that bug.

they may multiply vast to become a menace.

and mind you do not inform this to Matty B and some who

love pest you will find that point in a thread called Pets !  :)

these guys usually remain in the mulch and wet dirt of the foot

of the plants.only after their work is completed they pop-up to

the surface level,probably to get killed by us.

Happy hunting using powerful chenical pesticides !

and kate your avatar simply rocks !

Love,

Kris  :)

love conquers all..

43278.gif

.

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I looked closer at the potted palms that were in the area and the new spear on the Coccothrinax and Cryosophila palms – guess they were damaged from the cold this winter and may have been what attracted the weevil. The Pritchardia the weevil was on doesn’t seem to have any bud issues, but it was heavily frost damaged this winter. I put hydrogen peroxide on them, even the Pritchardia just in case.

Mike – we eat many weird things in South Louisiana, but I’ll stay away from weevil larvae.

Michael – Dairy Food Technology? I guess you can major in just about anything. What do you do? A friend graduated in Poultry Science and works for Sanderson Farms managing a chicken processing plant – we call him the Chicken Man because it makes his wife mad. I have a boring Chemical Engineering degree from Louisiana Tech – go bulldogs!

These aren’t native to Louisiana – the link from max states that the palmetto weevil is native to Florida, is the only species of palm weevil in the continental United States and that worldwide, there are ten described species of palm weevils.

A friend in Barataria, La just e-mailed me that he found six on his damaged Washingtonia palms after Katrina.

M@x – They fly! I was planning to open the container today to get a better picture, but I think I will wait until it dies. It would freak me out if it landed on me! Thanks for the link.

Kris – Glad you like the avatar. It’s a permit I caught in Belize three years ago. I haven’t been fishing since Katrina destroyed my boat, but I’ll update the picture with my next catch.

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I'm a Quality Systems Engineer for Nestle/Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream here in Houston. We manufacture about 24 million gallons of ice cream a year. Haggen Daaz, Starbuck's and Dreyer's/Edy's. I used to live in New Orleans off of Chestnut and Louisiana when I was working at Brown's dairy off of Baronne, 5 yrs ago.

I hope you have gotten all these things out your yard. Do these die pretty easily with Malathion or such?

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Hi Kathryn, your weevil looks similar to the palmetto weevils that chose to invade my roeb.  A quick application of Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub persuaded them to vacate.

And yes, they (shudder) fly!  Ugh.

I think they were attracted by the queens across the street that - years ago - used to be beautiful, but there's been a different owner who rents the place out, and the queens are being allowed to starve to death :(

St. Pete

Zone - a wacked-out place between 9b & 10

Elevation = 44' - not that it does any good

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