Palm pest

[sandgroper]

G'day all,

                 I'm not sure how widespread these things are but I do know they've now become naturalised in Singapore. This is the orange Palm dart moth, they originated in North Queensland but are now found almost anywhere in Australia that palms are found thanks to humans transporting plants without the proper quarantines being applied. They lay eggs on the underside of palm fronds, when the caterpillars hatch they wrap the frond around themselves for protection against predators and proceed to eat the frond. These things infest the palms and really strip the fronds. I've found them to be the worst on my kentias, golden canes and coconut where they cause loads of damage. Hopefully they haven't spread any further, they're a pain in the bum and make the palms look unsightly. I pulled these pics from the net as I can't get decent photos of them but here they are.

[sandgroper]

[sandgroper]

This is the sort of damage you're left with.

[GottmitAlex]

Ouch. Well, in Socal, 100x your moth than our "naturalized" Southamerican weevil. 

Btw, any moth I detect on my palms: mortus est.

 

Edited June 5, 2018 by GottmitAlex

[sandgroper]

Quite happy not to have your weevil mate and I completely agree, anytime I find a wrapped leaflet the offender has a very short lifespan.

[palmfriend]

Dave,

never seen that one over here so far, but we got other insects with a similar method (wrapping and finally eating the leaflet) but

fortunately in limited numbers. When you find something like this...

it means this guy is at work 

Japanese rhinoceros beetle (Allomyrina dichotoma) - btw. sold at our home depot for about 30U$ (!) as a pet!!

They are extremely popular among the kids - so showing my son this spiked fellow made

him look at me angrily...(from now on I got to hunt these guys secretively...)

It infested my Washingtonias and my cocos nuciferas, as well - here on my P. roebellenii - 

but at the moment I got the upper-hand back pulling half a dozen out of my plants. They 

don`t kill the plants but can pretty much damage them...

Best regards -

Lars

 

[sandgroper]

I'm quite happy not to have them over here Lars, palm dart moths make the palms look pretty ratty but I've never heard of them killing a palm so I think they're the lesser of two evils (or weevils).

[Pip]

They are annoying, but pretty when flying about in big groups and around  a palm canopy.