Prized Canary Island with Palm Weevils!

[Leviticus Cornwall]

I have palm weevils in Jax FL! I was horrified to find a healthy frond crumble out of the crown. I definitely saw palm weevil larva… they look like giant maggots!

Looking for any advice.

What I have done:

I ordered these traps on Amazon. It’s basically a bucket with pheromones. They can’t get out of the water once they fall in

I also have an exterminator coming on Monday, but I can’t find any kind of arborists in the area that advertise a weevil service

Other than traps and insecticides, Is there some kind of fertilizer I could deploy to save this thing?

Thanks in advance! I’m freaking out

 

[Tracy]

3 hours ago, Leviticus Cornwall said:

I have palm weevils in Jax FL! I was horrified to find a healthy frond crumble out of the crown. I definitely saw palm weevil larva… they look like giant maggots!

Looking for any advice.

What I have done:

I ordered these traps on Amazon. It’s basically a bucket with pheromones. They can’t get out of the water once they fall in

I also have an exterminator coming on Monday, but I can’t find any kind of arborists in the area that advertise a weevil service

Other than traps and insecticides, Is there some kind of fertilizer I could deploy to save this thing?

Thanks in advance! I’m freaking out

 

Unfortunately I think your palm won't recover from the damage the larva have already done to the meristem.   We don't have the red palm weevil here in Southern California but we do have it's relative, the South American palm weevil. 

The pheromone and traps can help capture some weevils and the hope is that they will distract the weevils from your pal.s.  That said, they won't help a palm which is already infested.   Pretreatment with systematic insecticides can help, but I have friends who were consistent with soil drenches and crown drenches with the preferred systematic that still lost CIDP'S to our South American palm weevil. Maybe someone has experienced a more positive outcome with the red palm weevil but I will be surprised. 

[PalmBossTampa]

Here servicing palms in FL, but there has never been a reversal of palmetto weevil damage to a palm that I know about.  There are preventative trunk injected pesticides which DO offer some protection but at high (thus expensive) doses.  I have lost completely healthy palms before when they were typically thought to be drawn to stressed or transplanted specimens. No longer the case. Weevils need a place to mate and the old leaf bases of Canary Island Date palms as well as Bismarckia palms are ideal spots.  Fertilizer will help a palm in FL have adequate nutrients to look best, but a healthier palm offers no additional resistance or curative chances.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I want to offset that with good information going forward.  

If there are a large quantity of CIDP or Bismarck around 1 mile radius, nematodes can be used to control existing larvae.  It would take a lot of property owner coordination in some cases. Nematodes are shipped in cooled gel packs and re-animated in water. They are sprayed into the canopy/bud after sundown and the nematodes pierce the larvae. Cool how  they’ve figured out how to use nature against nature.  The date palm production industry has put a lot of resources into the study of the pheromones and trying to replicate to insects own language to use against it. Let’s say we spray palms with ‘stay away’ pheromone rather than ‘come-on lets mate’

Send me a DM if you want more info

[SeanK]

I suspect that the aroma of freshly trimmed, juicy green petioles is too tempting to resist.

[donpachino1983]

Wowowow this sucks sorry for your lost.