Palm tree disease mystery

[TomM]

I am very fond of Foxtail palms and have dozens of them at my office as well as my home.  All of a sudden a few of the two year old 8' palms have been very stressed and one was so bad we destroyed it. 

All of a sudden a huge split opened up on another palm - about a 12" very swollen area on the trunk 4' off the ground opened up.  On another there seems to be insects or beetle borers congregating -pictures attached.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

[Silas_Sancona]

1 hour ago, TomM said:

I am very fond of Foxtail palms and have dozens of them at my office as well as my home.  All of a sudden a few of the two year old 8' palms have been very stressed and one was so bad we destroyed it. 

All of a sudden a huge split opened up on another palm - about a 12" very swollen area on the trunk 4' off the ground opened up.  On another there seems to be insects or beetle borers congregating -pictures attached.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

Can't speak for what may be happening w/ the Foxtail in shot #1  but shot #2 looks like some sort of bag worm, which is the caterpillar stage of various Moths in the Psychidae family..  Literally dozens ( and dozens ) of species in numerous Genera. You'd have to look over the iNat observations from your area in FL to get a basic idea of which species occurs there.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/61415-Psychidae


Never heard of these being an issue w/ palms, but that doesn't mean there aren't species that aren't.. Would mainly consume the leaflets rather than damaging the crown shaft / trunk i'd think..  May be using the trunk / crown shaft area of the Foxtail as a hang out spot while they complete their lifecycle.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Looks like the palm’s growing point got jammed up and a new frond is pushing out of the side of the crown shaft. It’s a rare occurrence but I’ve seen it happen a few times.