Your most reviled palm pest where you are?

[DoomsDave]

So, what creature destroys your palms that you just loathe, with seething visceral hatred? Tooth-grinding desire to commit mayhem?

Here in California it's the pocket gopher, though other rodents are loathed as well. We might have a newbie in the form of the South American Palm Weevil coming soon.

So tell us yours and why.

I hear that porcupines in Africa are like giant gophers with lethal quills . . . what fun fun fun! (True?)

Share with us!

[Las Palmas Norte]

Most of what I've had to deal with are more insect related. I hate earwigs getting down in the crown growth point. I did have a critter (squirrel or rat/mouse) get in the crown of a CIDP using it as a place to store seeds and nuts. While hanging around also decided nibbling on the fresh growth was a good idea which damaged all the emerging spears this past spring. So far that's only happened once. Obviously our native raptors are well fed and there's an abundance of available food.

Cheers, Barrie.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Las Palmas Norte

[Cocoa Beach Jason]

Extreme heat six months out of the year, or extreme cold every 25 years. 

[Really full garden]

I just posted this on another thread ,this is the beetle that kills my mature Bismarckias.

 

[GottmitAlex]

1 hour ago, scottgt said:

I just posted this on another thread ,this is the beetle that kills my mature Bismarckias.

 

Now why do those seem very familiar?

[kirkhutch]

Here in AZ I have an issue with javelina eating the leaves of my young palms! They like Sabals. 

[Hammer]

Spider mites give me fits from time to time and really mess with many of my younger palms.

[Daryl]

By far the worst pest we have in my area is  Rhabdoscelus obscurus. This is the Sugar Cane Weevil Borer and does so much damage to palms. I lost all but one of my large Pritchardia to this pest...they seem to love them...also my trunking Parajubaea cocoides and a few others. I am sure that by now they have polished off a few of my rare Dypsis as well, although some palms are too hard for them. A lot of people in these parts have had large attacks and lost many treasures...I lost my large Lemurophoenix recently to this pest, after successfully transplanting it...so for sure, this is THE worst we have to deal with, apart from drought.

[Gonzer]

Uneducated palm enthusiasts.

[XYZ]

1 hour ago, Gonzer said:

Uneducated palm enthusiasts.

¡Hahaha! A keen & ready wit saves the day!

Spider mites, by the widest of margins. Very difficult to eradicate under greenhouse conditions here, even with an excellent variety of good miticides on hand. I think there are just too many alternate hosts where I am, so constant battle to keep some chamaedoreas looking good. Most of the best miticides are quite phytotoxic to small seedlings, so a real challenge to keep them relatively pest-free until they can handle "the cure".

J

[Pal Meir]

2 hours ago, Gonzer said:

Uneducated palm enthusiasts.

In the 1990s uneducated »university students« broke off the offshoots of my 30 years old Chamaerops and »watered« it with beer … †

[Hammer]

55 minutes ago, stone jaguar said:

¡Hahaha! A keen & ready wit saves the day!

Spider mites, by the widest of margins. Very difficult to eradicate under greenhouse conditions here, even with an excellent variety of good miticides on hand. I think there are just too many alternate hosts where I am, so constant battle to keep some chamaedoreas looking good. Most of the best miticides are quite phytotoxic to small seedlings, so a real challenge to keep them relatively pest-free until they can handle "the cure".

J

Best I have found to combat them, use a spray bottle filled with soapy water.  Knocks them out and is pretty easy on the plants.

[Palm Tree Jim]

Those pesky rabbits!

They like to munch on the soft new growth......palms or cycads.

[Palm Tree Jim]

10 minutes ago, Hammer said:

Best I have found to combat them, use a spray bottle filled with soapy water.  Knocks them out and is pretty easy on the plants.

This has worked for me. I just make sure to spray both the top and bottom of the leaves. 

[XYZ]

Hammer & Jim:

Ummm, thanks but not for me. I add a surfactant (i.e. a~"soap") to all of the miticides I use, except Pylon, as a spreader-sticker with each application so clearly soap alone doesn't fit the bill here.  I have never found any of the alternative treatments (Dawn liquid, cold coffee, voodoo, votive candles, etc.) to work, except pure neem oil + surfactant, but this has to be applied to runoff with complete coverage (incl. soil surface) every three days for a couple weeks to achieve any real semblance of control for two-spot spider mites in a commercial greenhouse. That having been said neem oil is only real option for me at this point - other than predatory mite releases every several months - in keeping spider mites at bay in seedlings of some spp. More than the anti-feed/miticidal effect from the neem, I suspect it works sort of like a stylet oil when used as I describe.

I suspect I am working with much touchier things than you folks, so a bit more complicated than it would first seem.

I strongly suggest that persons with persistent spider mite issues check out the better cannabis-growing fora online. Not really my bag, but It is common knowledge that some indoor marijuana growers are the finest and most creative horticulturists of our time and, together with commercial glasshouse rose growers, have forgotten more about spider mite control than most gardeners will ever know.

J

[DoomsDave]

11 hours ago, kirkhutch said:

Here in AZ I have an issue with javelina eating the leaves of my young palms! They like Sabals. 

They're edible, the javelinas that is. They taste great curried.

[DoomsDave]

2 hours ago, Gonzer said:

Uneducated palm enthusiasts.

I would have to include myself from time to time.

Oh, the litany . . .

[topwater]

2 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

They're edible, the javelinas that is. They taste great curried.

Most things do. A javelina may take the big jar!

[DoomsDave]

Just now, topwater said:

Most things do. A javelina may take the big jar!

Use panang paste instead, much richer, more robust, plenty of yoghurt! Or coconut milk. Javies are NOT fatty.

[Hammer]

3 hours ago, stone jaguar said:

Hammer & Jim:

Ummm, thanks but not for me. I add a surfactant (i.e. a~"soap") to all of the miticides I use, except Pylon, as a spreader-sticker with each application so clearly soap alone doesn't fit the bill here.  I have never found any of the alternative treatments (Dawn liquid, cold coffee, voodoo, votive candles, etc.) to work, except pure neem oil + surfactant, but this has to be applied to runoff with complete coverage (incl. soil surface) every three days for a couple weeks to achieve any real semblance of control for two-spot spider mites in a commercial greenhouse. That having been said neem oil is only real option for me at this point - other than predatory mite releases every several months - in keeping spider mites at bay in seedlings of some spp. More than the anti-feed/miticidal effect from the neem, I suspect it works sort of like a stylet oil when used as I describe.

I suspect I am working with much touchier things than you folks, so a bit more complicated than it would first seem.

I strongly suggest that persons with persistent spider mite issues check out the better cannabis-growing fora online. Not really my bag, but It is common knowledge that some indoor marijuana growers are the finest and most creative horticulturists of our time and, together with commercial glasshouse rose growers, have forgotten more about spider mite control than most gardeners will ever know.

J

Sorry to hear.  That is too bad.  Soap has been an excellent solution for me. Cheap too.  

But then again, I am not growing anything on a commercial scale.

[quaman58]

Argentine ants & their annoying habit of farming any juice sucking critters that produce honeydew for them. Just lost my only Trachycarpus princeps to an infestation that occurred underneath the base of the palm, below the soil line. The leaves just got smaller & smaller, & the plant just declined to nothingness. Evil little bastards, but they're here to stay.. 

[eevans]

For me it's been the "ox beetle" (Strategus aloeus). Their thumb-sized grubs eat up from the roots through the trunk, leaving huge tunnels that microbial infection then invades. They've killed all of my windmill palms (5 of them, some 12 feet tall), both of my 20+ year old Butia odoratas, and even a few Sabal minors.

Needless to say, I now install a fortress of wire mesh and egg stones around the bases of my new palm plantings.

[SouthSeaNate]

Apart from the RPW, the biggest pest for me is crickets/locusts which just love chewing on my palm fronds

[topwater]

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/03/bugs-eat-insects-palm-weevils-ghana-protein

[kirkhutch]

[rprimbs]

If gophers ever go extinct I won't miss them.

[Phoenikakias]

Paysandisia archon.

[Monòver]

10 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Paysandisia archon.

This lovely caterpillars???

[PalmatierMeg]

Most disgusting pest for me are the palm weevil larvae that ate the heart out of our largest Bizzies - 3+ inches of grotesque ugliness that give me the vapors. Did mention I have a phobia about maggots, grubs, maggots & ticks?

[Phoenikakias]

3 hours ago, Monòver said:

This lovely caterpillars???

Ain't these 'cute'?

[BS Man about Palms]

EEwww... but around here, Gophers and Voles are most destructive.

[DoomsDave]

On 11/8/2016, 6:10:23, kirkhutch said:

Jump into the pen, pluck his whiskers, then blow in his face!

[KrisKupsch]

Rats by far are my worst issue then Swamp Wallabies which are merely larger rats with pouches.

[cm05]

Field mice. Normally they're attracted to my leafier plants, my palms just get caught in the crossfire from time to time. They like to burrow through the soil, damaging roots in the process. My Trachy sustained the worst damage this summer, repeatedly, but it's recovered nicely.

[kirkhutch]

7 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

Jump into the pen, pluck his whiskers, then blow in his face!

Lol. Not quite a pin or I would do that! In this pic they are under my kids trampoline. 

[kinzyjr]

Scale, lethal yellowing, phoenix palm decline, caterpillars.

Serious infestations of scale took out a few of my young phoenix theophrasti.  Phoenix palm decline is harming a lot of Canary Island Date Palms and true date palms here as far as public plantings.  Seems like the city is replacing them with Crape Myrtles in some areas.  Caterpillars darn near picked my papaya plants clean before they were discovered and eliminated.  The papayas came back strong and are fruiting.

[Steve Mac]

Here it would have to be the Council pruners.

I think that we have all seen pictures of palms after those destructive buggers.