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What is attacking my emerging fronds?

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22 hours ago22 hr

In the past couple of weeks, I'm noticing damage to the emerging fronds on multiple palms around my home. My initial thought was maybe rabbits or squirrels but now I'm a little confused because some areas of damage are as high as 25" from the ground, seems a little higher than a rabbit could reach up on hind legs. If it was a squirrels, I thought there might be some damage to the younger, more tender fronds they'd climb on to reach the new spears?

I'm certain some of you have dealt with this before, but I haven't had to battle squirrels anywhere I have lived prior. I'm currently in Brandon, FL just east of Tampa. I don't think we have tall jack rabbits here. I haven't seen any rats around and I am diligent on rodent control with bait boxes and traps.

What's the consensus here? TIA

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13 hours ago13 hr

Could be some type of beetle larvae or a moth larvae, possibly even a cricket.

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7 hours ago7 hr

6 hours ago, happypalms said:
Could be some type of beetle larvae or a moth larvae, possibly even a cricket.

I’m curious, could it be a rodent: mouse or rat?

My 30 year old 6 1/2 ft tall Chamaedorea metallica largest (1 of 2 trunks) stem fronds were eaten by a mouse or rat. Luckily, the rodents didn’t eat the heart so it’s slowly recovering.

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3 hours ago3 hr

Author

I was kind of ruling out rodents but after seeing additional damage to some palms this morning it does look more like possible rodents. They are digging up around the roots on my palms now, chewing on them, and took off a frond from some silver saw palmetto. Found this additional damage this morning. It got in there and ate the heart out. I did see a small oppossum just leaving the yard but not sure that was the culprit.