Largest Bizzie destroyed by palm weevil

[PalmatierMeg]

Tonight we noticed the crown of the huge Bizzie that graced our front yard had totally collapsed. When my husband cut off fronds and pulled out the center he saw weevils/beetles running for cover. They are black with red markings. I'm sure this is the same pest that is destroying Bismarckias all over Cape Coral. This palm started struggling last winter. Since we first noticed it was doing poorly, we have treated it with buckets of Merit and extra fertilizer. I suspected it was infested from the beginning but my husband insisted it was doing better. Apparently all our efforts didn't work.

Anyway, we poured buckets of insecticide into the center of our palm. We bagged up as much debris as we could and put it in the trash. But it was getting dark and my husband had a softball game, so we poured more insecticide over the mangled heart of the wretched palm (lying on the driveway) in an attempt to kill any bugs lurking within. Tomorrow we will buy super strong trash bags to dispose of the rest.

Below is the mangled trunk of our dead Bizzie (behind and to the left is our Pseudophoenix ekmanii). Next photo is of discarded fronds & heart. Lighting was poor so photos aren't too great. I'm already planning to plant a Copernicia gigas I germinated from seeds I found in Cuba. First we have to deal with that massive trunk.

[John Case]

Tragic.....

[willo68]

Thats pretty awfull

[Neil C]

That sucks!

[bstoller]

How old is that ekmanii ??   It sure looks nice

[akaranus]

damn bugs 

[kwtimo]

Man, that is really too bad.  Home Depot rents a portable, very powerful Toro stump grinder that could help finish that thing off.  I was amazed at how light and agile this piece of equipment is, and with a helper it easily went into my van. Sounds like a great plant to have a C. gigas that you personally collected the seed from habitat  as a replacement.  I hope that is the last you see of the weevil on your property.

[Mohsen]

Very sad

anyone know if we have of these bugs in Australia or SYDNEY ?

how we could prevent them?

my Bizzir is very small but better to be prepared

[PalmatierMeg]

How old is that ekmanii ??   It sure looks nice

I estimate the ekmanii to be 10+ years old. I got it as a 1g in 2008.

[Missi]

So sorry to see the demise of your bizzie Meg  Hope you got all those nasties & their larvae. Will you need to reapply in a week or so to kill off any that may have hatched out? I need to read up on the palm weevil & see how active they are in Naples/Golden Gate Estates.

Mmm...P. ekmanii Do you have any spare C. gigas you might want to sell a neighbor?

[PalmatierMeg]

We are in the process of dismantling our Bizzie's trunk - it is nearly 3' diameter. The "wood" is soft and cuts relatively easily with a chain but still a lot of work. My husband is chopping and prying out triangular chunks in an effort to level the trunk.

Edited October 16, 2015 by PalmatierMeg

[PalmatierMeg]

A chunk of wood. Last photo is of two dead weevil larvae. They are about 1-1/2" long and 1/2" wide. My stomach was churning when I took that photo. I have a phobia about grubs, maggots and ticks.

[Kris]

Its a very painful sight to watch...but I would suggest you to use chemical based pesticides to control such attacks in future.

since many in our forum hate chemical based fertz and insecticides...I feel the results would be the same as seen above..

 

[Missi]

Ughhhhhh Giant fat grubs. My chickens would LOVE to devour them! All kinds of borer grubs are the worst because when you handle them they pinch your skin hard with their mandibles!  R.I.P. Bizzie, but make way for gigas!!

[Walt]

I really feel your pain. I have nine Bismarckia palms in the ground. I'm constantly looking at the emerging spear and newest fronds for the first sign of stress that would indicate the palmetto weevil. If I ever do I will immediately do a root drench with Imidocloprid and hope the palm takes it up in time to kill the grubs. Only a few of my bismarkia palms are short enough for me to drench the bud area. No way and I going up ladders to try and do it.

Earlier this year I knew a guy that lost a bismarckia to palmetto weevils. His palm had about six fee of trunk. It had all that blackish liquid leaking down the trunk -- like I see in your photo. So far in the Lake Placid area that one bismarckia palm is all that I know of that was killed by palmetto weevils. But there's been lots of Canary Island date palms that have been killed by the weevils.

The below YouTube video I made last summer shows some of my bismarckia palms. My biggest complaint now is all (100s) of bismarckia seedlings that are coming up all over the place. They are as bad or worse than queen palms that naturalize all over my property and I'm constantly mowing over them or using pruners to kill them.

 

 

 

[PalmatierMeg]

I really feel your pain. I have nine Bismarckia palms in the ground. I'm constantly looking at the emerging spear and newest fronds for the first sign of stress that would indicate the palmetto weevil. If I ever do I will immediately do a root drench with Imidocloprid and hope the palm takes it up in time to kill the grubs. Only a few of my bismarkia palms are short enough for me to drench the bud area. No way and I going up ladders to try and do it.

Earlier this year I knew a guy that lost a bismarckia to palmetto weevils. His palm had about six fee of trunk. It had all that blackish liquid leaking down the trunk -- like I see in your photo. So far in the Lake Placid area that one bismarckia palm is all that I know of that was killed by palmetto weevils. But there's been lots of Canary Island date palms that have been killed by the weevils.

The below YouTube video I made last summer shows some of my bismarckia palms. My biggest complaint now is all (100s) of bismarckia seedlings that are coming up all over the place. They are as bad or worse than queen palms that naturalize all over my property and I'm constantly mowing over them or using pruners to kill them.

 

 

 

When we first noticed something was wrong, we drenched all around it with 5g buckets of Merit (75% Imadacloprid powder we buy from a vendor in Punta Gorda, not the 12% liquid from the BBs). We  also poured buckets of Merit solution into the center of the crown. We followed that up with another treatment a few months later. None of it seemed to help and the palm declined until it collapsed. Maybe we noticed the problem too late. We have 7 more Bizzies on our garden lot. We plan to treat them with Merit as well as poured another insecticide into the crowns in hope to deter or abort an infestation. We'll have to inspect them regularly.

My husband mentioned he had smelled a strange odor coming from the palm months before it collapsed. I didn't notice the smell but I have severe respiratory allergies and maybe couldn't detect it. But I sure smelled something very unpleasant when we dismantled the palm. I wonder if it was intended to mark a sick palm and attract more weevils. I just hope none of them find my other Bizzies.

Cape Coral, unfortunately, seems to be a hot spot for palm weevils. Long before we realized our Bizzie was in trouble we'd seen other large Bizzies that had collapsed and died all over the Cape.

[Josh-O]

sorry to see these sad pictures  

[Sandy Loam]

What a shame!  Now I have to add Bismarckia nobilis to the long list of. Of palms that we can't grow in Florida due to pests.

[Hammer]

Ugh

[Walt]

The bismarckia below is the one I was referring to in my above posting. Note the dying/dead uppermost fronds (typical of meristem death from palm weevil) while the oldest fronds are still healthy.

 

 

[Walt]

The below photos shows the black liquid that oozed down the trunk, similar to what was exhibited on your bismarckia palm:

[Tampa Scott]

I have a feeling that the RPW will change the FL landscape forever. I can not count all the washingtonia that have fallen to the weevil in the Tampa area along with the Phoenix palms. Everyday I notice more in the area. I have lost 4 washingtonia, 1 P. dactylifera and 1 P. canariensis and another canariensis still in the battle with the weevil. I have been Treating my 3 Bizzie's heavy this year.   

[Rafael]

Not only FL landscape, all around the world wherever CIDP and washies are the main landscaping choice. In Portugal, there are dead CIDP all around. Curiously not the washies. 

The RPW has arrived, a couple of weeks ago, next to my yards. Everything was sprayed with confidor, but i am afraid of what might happen, including my dear bizzie.

sorry for your bizzie Meg

[Zeeth]

I have a feeling that the RPW will change the FL landscape forever. I can not count all the washingtonia that have fallen to the weevil in the Tampa area along with the Phoenix palms. Everyday I notice more in the area. I have lost 4 washingtonia, 1 P. dactylifera and 1 P. canariensis and another canariensis still in the battle with the weevil. I have been Treating my 3 Bizzie's heavy this year.   

You sure it's RPW? I've seen a lot of bizzies get killed by the native palmetto weevil, but most of the date palms and Washingtonia that have been dying around the Tampa area have been from Texas palm decline, which is related to LY but has different hosts. 

[Beach palm]

I lost two bizzes about that size along with some sabals about 5 years ago. Since then I put bait out from spring to summer. I probably catch a hundred or so a year. I also put ivory soap bars in the crowns. I am told the weevils don't like the soap in the crown. I also drench the palms with a systemic insecticide in the spring when the weevils are out mating. I found that the palms were ok until they started to flower, perhaps the stress or the smell attracted the weevils. Oh I also do not cut any fronds in the spring. I definitely do NOT tear any leaves off the palm so that there is open flesh. I think the weevils are attracted by the fresh cuts.

[Phoenikakias]

I keep reading in previous posts how Merit alias imidacloprid proved inefficient for protection or cure in the battle against a very close relative to rpw. I keep further reading that Merit is applied once or mostly twice yearly in aFlorida, a place with constant warmth, let aside some rare to occasional cold spells. I tried to highlight following aspect previously and I am gonna do it once more: Here in Europe we have been told that imidacloprid is effective for 21 days only, and further that we should spray with it at least every month for protection or cure. Furthermore we have been advised not to use it alone but combined with chlorpyriphos, which is not systemic, instead it acts with contact and odor. There is besides a published scientific paper from Qatar, according to which spraying of the crown with Dimethoat solution (2cc/lt water) offers protection of date palms against rpw for 4 months. My own experience is  that drenching completely a palms growing point and leaf bases with a chlorpyriphos solution (3 cc /lt water, you can make it even stronger to 4 or 5 cc)  twice within half a month plus a soil drenching with Dimethoat around palms basal part will cure any palm that can be saved (protection however against new infection is a different story). So reading about application through soil or crown drench with imidacloprid mostly twice yearly looks to my eyes as only waste of money and time. Below you can see on my freshly cleaned Bizzie, treated in the past as described above, the corpses of two m*f*! They had been apparently killed by the pesticides before they were able to lay eggs or do any damage.

Of course   can be caused  numerous side effects  by the application of previous method and of course there is always the option of using biological means, which also have their own serious drawbacks. No method is till now perfect but the practice followed by Floridians is imo totally futile.

[Rafael]

I keep reading in previous posts how Merit alias imidacloprid proved inefficient for protection or cure in the battle against a very close relative to rpw. I keep further reading that Merit is applied once or mostly twice yearly in aFlorida, a place with constant warmth, let aside some rare to occasional cold spells. I tried to highlight following aspect previously and I am gonna do it once more: Here in Europe we have been told that imidacloprid is effective for 21 days only, and further that we should spray with it at least every month for protection or cure. Furthermore we have been advised not to use it alone but combined with chlorpyriphos, which is not systemic, instead it acts with contact and odor. There is besides a published scientific paper from Qatar, according to which spraying of the crown with Dimethoat solution (2cc/lt water) offers protection of date palms against rpw for 4 months. My own experience is  that drenching completely a palms growing point and leaf bases with a chlorpyriphos solution (3 cc /lt water, you can make it even stronger to 4 or 5 cc)  twice within half a month plus a soil drenching with Dimethoat around palms basal part will cure any palm that can be saved (protection however against new infection is a different story). So reading about application through soil or crown drench with imidacloprid mostly twice yearly looks to my eyes as only waste of money and time. Below you can see on my freshly cleaned Bizzie, treated in the past as described above, the corpses of two m*f*! They had been apparently killed by the pesticides before they were able to lay eggs or do any damage.

Of course   can be caused  numerous side effects  by the application of previous method and of course there is always the option of using biological means, which also have their own serious drawbacks. No method is till now perfect but the practice followed by Floridians is imo totally futile.

Konstantinos, thanks for sharing so precious information. I have been using confidor only. But the RPW has just arrived near and it has not been tested yet. So i think it's about time to increase the defense. 

Meanwhile, what do you know about possible cold efects on RPW?

[Phoenikakias]

Rafael, according to maps of Europe showing the USDA zones, Portugal is included entirely to zone 10 (deeply green color), while Attica in Greece is included to zone 9. So you should not rely on any cold in your area. You may stop taking any precautions during November or December to March of following year and that's all!

[Rafael]

I wish i could do that

in fact, i asked about the RPW activity during the colder months...

[Phoenikakias]

In Algarve it is said that a monthly protection for whole year is necessary. This  information was given about 4 years ago, I do not know if since then new knowledge and experience has been gained allowing a revision of practice. Further I do not know how colder than Algarve are  Furadouro or Ovar, so that  another practice should be considered. Judging from the climate in my region I provided previous advice. Generally a weevil remains inactive below 15 C, so new contamination below this theshold is impossible. But by an EXISTING infection larvae remain active inside the palm and survive also light (or even medium?) freezes, because of the warmth produced by fermentation of dead tissue and excrements from the larvae themselves.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Phoenikakias

[Monòver]

The cold weather is not a problem for weevils.

Here during winter days, if we have a sunny and warm day, is common to see the weevils flying around palms.

And the larvae inside the palms, always are in a warm place because the fermentation makes the palm a hot place.

My other garden is 60 km inland in a cold place, every winter we have medium frost,but the RPW is killing every canary palms.

[Palmfan]

Beach palm, where did you get your bait traps? I can't locate any. Thanks

[Really full garden]

Meg, I too have lost three large Bismarckias in the last four years. It is devastating to see this happening.

I too tried systemics ,drenches ,sprays to no avail.It is really not likely a mature Bismackia can absorb and distibute enough of the systemic to kill the weevils. Most of the systemic that is absorbed ends up in the leaf tissue.

There are companies that inject a cocktail of chemicals under pressure directly to the trunk. I think they do have some success in saving about 50% of the palms treated,but this can cost $100s to treat an infected Palm.

 I believe that flowering and fruiting Bismarckias do attract the weevils. I have never seen an immature palm infected.The smell of Bismarckias ripe fruit is very intensely sweet.I never had this problem until the first palm produced massive amounts of seed and I left the seed that fell for days.

For the past year I have removed every inflorescence,both male and female.

I also noticed the weevils liked to excavate their holes under old leaf bases, so I also keep my bizzies very well groomed.

I have not had weevils for about a year.This regimen has worked for me here in Guatemala.

[Walt]

Well, no sooner do I make a reply to this post two days ago, then I go outside yesterday and happened to see a totally dead frond (a top frond, not a  bottom frond going through natural senescence. All the newer fronds and a partially opened new frond looks heathy, but to my eye the top of the palm seems to have a lean to it. I drenced the roots yesterday with Dominion 2L, but if this palm does have palmetto weevils, then I feel the root drench will be to no avail. All I can do at this point is hope that the one frond die back was some sort of anomaly, fluke, etc.

In the below photo you can see the dead frond indicated by the red arrow:

 

Edited October 18, 2015 by Walt

[Walt]

Close up view of dead frond:

 

.

 

 

 

[Walt]

Another view of dead frond:

 

[Walt]

After some root drench yesterday I addes some more today. But I've read that trees (don't know about palms) only take systemic imidocloprid up about 8-10 feet max. The trunk of this particular bismarckia is about 11 feet, then about another 12-15" of cut off frond bases before getting to full living fronds.

 

[Really full garden]

Walt it looks to have a female inflorescence. Try removing all the inflorescences from your bizzies and remove the old leaf bases.This won't save your infected one but might help the others from the weevils.

Good luck!

 

[Phoenikakias]

Why don't you try a certain imidacloprid solution. It reputedly  gets absorbed faster and travel higher up to the palm. The american company Mauget offers this solution as part of an endotherapy (meaning injections) method  . Indeed results were spectacular and very fast coming.  The drawback  consists in that they must be inserted  spirally many tubes in to the trunk, and new holes had to be drilled in to the trunk of palms every two applications. The active substance was also confidor but in a rate of 10%. The other part of the solution is a special alcohol called Tetrahydrofurfuryl (THFA).  This alcohol is not flamable and has a very high evaporation point and most of all it has proved in the USA to help significantly to a very fast uptake of the active substance through the palm's vascular system, meaning also faster results. Such ready solution is sold by Mauget in the USA under the brand name IMICIDE, but it is terribly expensive for growers, who have many palms and need large quantities. It is supposed to act super fast and effectively also used for soil drench or more accurately injected in to the soil...Of course there is also the possibility that you prepare your own solution if you can locate this alcohol, but I do not recommend it because you would violate an us patent.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Phoenikakias

[Beach palm]

Here is here is where I buy my lures. They also sell the trap which is just a plastic bucket you could buy at Home Depot.

 

http://www.alphascents.com/lures/lures.html