Accused Palm Killer Photos Within

[Ed Askew]

So, I'm wondering if the other people having problems with Strategus also live out in the country like me, and don't have any lights on at night?  I love living out in the country away from town, and one of the things I love the most about it is that there is, or at least there was until recently I got some neighbors, no light pollution at all.  No street lights, and the people who have lived around here for a while generally don't leave any lights on at night.  Beautiful night sky, lots of fireflies, lots of owls, and just a lot of different critters like foxes, etc, and I think they all appreciate that we don't have any lights.  I once left a porch light on by mistake and found a Strategus buzzing around and dispatched him.  I know from reviewing my game cameras that I have a lot of predators that would love a big juicy beetle if they could get one.  This year I have tried a light and pheromone trap, and so far I haven't caught a beetle, although we just started seeing females before I left for a long vacation, and I didn't bait the trap because the pheromone won't last but one or two nights anyway.  But, I was surprised when I got back yesterday to find I have only one palm with a burrow, and that was an old burrow that we rinsed beetles out of and resealed.  I think that light might be doing me some good, because conditions have been perfect for beetles with a lot of rain, and this time last year when I got back after a similar absence I think I remember finding 6 palms with burrows, or something like that.  So far, I have not had a palm fortress fail again after I made sure all the edges were buried and couldn't be washed out again.

[Cindy Adair]

Ed, Most of my farm is in darkness at night too.

Thanks so much for all your posts!

The single distant street light does not illuminate any palms. 

No neighbors whose security lights are anywhere close.

Like you I enjoy the lack of light pollution, but am interested to hear from others if darkness is a factor here.

I am glad this year seems pretty good for your beetle count!

I am seeing lots of attacks and dead palms among those last given the Bayer imidocloprid systemic 11 months ago.

Maybe 3/4 of my collection have had a reapplication in the last 3 months while I add a barrier trial method.

 I have only about 20 of my beetle barriers in place and as those palms were also given imidocloprid recently it is too soon to determine effectiveness.

I have the supplies ready hopefully to protect another 80 which will be prioritized to use on my favorites in ground plus newly planted palms this season, once my injured shoulder heals.

Then gather supplies for 100 more and continue unless it clearly is not working.

Keeping the 12 inch diameter minimum around my palms weed free (with three layers) will make it much easier to see at a distance any disturbance as we know comes with beetle digging.

My aim now is to complete all of the needed (hundreds) barriers before March 2022 with April being the earliest start of the heavier rains. 

[Swolte]

Ed, I am also out in the country. Interesting theory!

Cindy, I wanted to share an observation that got me thinking. I noticed some of the beetles getting stuck in the deer netting. They probably flew into it but it made me wonder whether loosely laying that down on the ground, surrounding the trunk, would get them entangled. They have quite some hooks and spikes on their legs that could get them stuck. In one case, the head was so stuck it fell off (very satisfying). If it works, it would make for an extremely lightweight solution...

Beetle season is almost over here but I am going to try it next year.

[Cindy Adair]

One less beetle to kill your palms! 
 

Much better than the birds I used to have to rescue caught in netting to protect my blueberry crop in VA...

 

[Ed Askew]

Well I noticed my wife, or maybe it was me, had unplugged my light on my beetle trap.  Sure enough I started having some attacks and caught a couple of more beetles.  I'm going to put some lights out there for next season.  We ought to be done now.  I have a 35 watt solar panel, with a charger controller, and I'll just put that out back and string some LEDS for next year. 

[Cindy Adair]

Well I reread my plan to complete all my beetle barriers by March 2022 as the first beetles in previous years did damage starting in April.

I finished in early February (lost count but probably about 500) which is good since we have had lots of earlier than usual rain,

BUT I saw evidence of the first attack today.

The gray rocks made it easy to see the red dirt at least. As before, at first glance my pair of palms look fine.

Iguanura piahensis.

Here’s another view of the larger one which got attacked.

I immediately applied granular imidocloprid into the hole and around the base. 

Despite the severe stem damage some with similar trauma have survived.

Certainly my barrier bombed on this one except making it easier to catch quickly due to the rock color and lack of weeds.

Sigh.

 

[Cindy Adair]

Don’t miss this topic too!

[Jimhardy]

I like the idea of the metal screening(only because I was going suggest it) that looks like the best idea

but you may need to take it out a ways from the palm in case these guys are side drillers.

[Cindy Adair]

Jimhardy, it was just a guess as to the 12 inch diameter size for these, based on the close proximity of the previous holes. 

I am trying to see these as prototypes for information gathering, but hard to be detached from negative results.

Perhaps I could add something to cover the stem up a few inches? Or with palmfriend’s photos and experiences is that unlikely to deter these critters?

Back to pheromones/lights/beneficial nematodes?

Many months remain to get more information this year.

No frosts, no need for irrigation, no gophers, no feral pigs, no lava, so far no iguanas or banana moths-just beetles….

 

[Jimhardy]

It will be interesting to see if they try to get around

your protection measures....PS If I ever saw a bug that size here I 

go into cardiac arrest!

[Cindy Adair]

https://www.pesttracker.org/map.php?code=INBPCSA
 

Above is a new link that I found quite interesting and eventually led me to actual accurate contact information in PR!!

My previous attempts went nowhere.

It was easy to find contact information for all locations in these links so I encourage you to try if you see any suspected rhino damage anywhere in the US.

https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/invertebrates/coconut-rhinoceros-beetle

Today an excellent USDA agent arrived and saw evidence of attacks in small palms as well as many coconuts looking totally normal. 

A beetle I had saved was sent to determine the species and a lure to capture more. I understand at least one more lure will be placed as well a someone returning every couple of weeks to start to check them. 
 

I also saw online that $866,000 was given in a grant to Guam for the fiscal year 2021 to learn and fight rhino beetles that have devastated their palms. See the screen shot below:

Puerto Rico clearly does not have the dollars that HI or now Guam have, but still I am delighted to finally get to people in PR who are helping me with this issue. 

[Cindy Adair]

Sadly no one has returned to follow up. With hurricane Fiona and the IPS Biennial travel delaying my persistence, now I plan to push again for the PR folks to follow up. 
 

Happily I made contacts for the Hawaii CRB (coconut rhino beetle) team while there and will be following up with them momentarily via email. They have an email you can subscribe to and lots of good information on the web.
 

https://www.crbhawaii.org

However unless I misunderstood, they are not aware this beetle is in fact already in the continental US. 
 

The beetles are in Oahu and the Big Island  (with so many amazing private gardens I just visited) is of course at risk too. 
 

Through Palm Talk I learned it is already in at least a few of the 48 states (Mississippi and Texas) killing our palms and definitely not just coconuts. 
 

When I returned to my farm I saw evidence of more beetle attacks and just applied Imidocloprid to these 6 palms knowing at best this is a stop gap method. 
 

While readjusting from HI time to PR time I awakened in the middle of the night and spent some internet time looking at vertical barriers made for deer and squirrel protection to see if any could be modified to attach to my existing hardware cloth with bird netting stuffed inside. 
 

Still hoping for a more practical assault but reading about failures on Guam via the internet did not make it easy to get back to sleep that night.

[Cindy Adair]

As expected, beetle damage decreased and then stopped when PR entered its dry(er) months. In fact I usually dry for the western mountain areas with many of us really really wishing for rain by late March!

In April we finally got some and about 2 weeks later I found my first freshly dug hole near the stem of a small diameter non trunking palm. 
 

I also received some gill netting (seems stronger and smaller holes than regular bird netting) via the internet. I opted for this based on a current trial with some coconuts in Hawaii albeit they experience petiole/trunk junction attacks which I have never seen.

Anyway I used imidocloprid into the hole and around the little palm and then “retrofitted” it with the netting. It’s the kill or capture idea.

This is a Clinostigma warburgii I grew from seed. Despite the damage the leaves all look great so I know it was recent.

[Cindy Adair]

I have been wrapping netting everyday since but not done yet. Today I spotted “leaning  palm syndrome” from near the top of one of my hills. I certainly saw this after Hurricane Fiona last September and went with my three pvc pipes and a mallet and some plastic small flexible tubing to steady it. 

 

I was not surprised to find two beetle holes.

 

 

I vaguely recall treating this palm hurriedly last year sometime. 
this time I found the head and various other disconnected body parts just inside one of the two holes. 

 

I theorize that the imidocloprid did kill the hole maker but the gallery I probed underneath took some of the needed anchoring roots and over time the winds just kept pushing the poor palm. 
 

I secured it, applied more imidocloprid since it seems to last here only about 4 months, not the 12 indicated on the label and then added the netting.

This is another seed grown one from a gift by its namesake Alfred. I do have a few more but treasure each one!

 

 

Here’s a more distant view. I will check on it looking for spear pull as the new spear looked a little stressed to me.

 

 

[ASHCVS]

Oh no!

[Cindy Adair]

Near the previous post is a Beccariophoenix fenestralis that was also attacked last year so with recent rains I knew it was at high risk. 
 

I saw this yesterday but only had time to quickly apply some imidocloprid. 
 

 

The hole and missing half of the stem at ground level was not visible until I climbed the slope. 
 

I used the imidocloprid product in the hole and around the palm.

[Cindy Adair]

Today at dawn I took 3 pieces of rebar and a mallet to hammer them securely into the dirt and some rope plus the needed hiking boots to climb the now muddy area. 

Four dead female rhino beetles obvious and two more just inside the hole.
 

 

We’ll see.

[Cindy Adair]

A couple of days later a dying male rhino beetle was just outside the hole making the known total 7. The palm still looks perfect from a distance with the spear intact.

The Clinostigma from my earlier post also looks fine from afar so I am hoping quick action will save them both at least for the 4-6 months imidocloprid systemic seems to last here. 
 

Anyone else fighting rhinos this year?

[Swolte]

2 minutes ago, Cindy Adair said:

Anyone else fighting rhinos this year?

Not yet but friends of mine have found one already.  July is usually peak time, so I am doing my rounds every day.

[D. Morrowii]

Well those things look pretty aggressive! At least you have a known affective treatment. Like everything else I’ll bet its hard to keep up on inspecting and or treating everything you have though.
I’m glad to say I have not found any intruders like these at my place yet. 

[Cindy Adair]

19 hours ago, Swolte said:

Not yet but friends of mine have found one already.  July is usually peak time, so I am doing my rounds every day.

Sorry to hear it.
 

I have heard from others that rhinoceros beetles are not a concern for palms in the continental US yet posts here indicate otherwise.

I know HI is dealing with issues now. 
 

And Guam.
 

I have seen maps on the internet, but for example PR was not listed as having issues so perhaps not up to date.

I would appreciate anyone reading this topic add their state (or country if out of the US) if they know for sure of rhino beetle attacks on palms plus the names of affected palm species if available.  
 

Your peak problem months and what you do to manage them are also of great interest to me.

I especially want to hear from those growing palms in FL, so close to PR.

Thanks so much!

[Cindy Adair]

19 hours ago, D. Morrowii said:

Well those things look pretty aggressive! At least you have a known affective treatment. Like everything else I’ll bet its hard to keep up on inspecting and or treating everything you have though.
I’m glad to say I have not found any intruders like these at my place yet. 

Well, I have lost lots of palms despite quite of bit of effort and expense so still looking for better practical and safer options. 

[D. Morrowii]

5 hours ago, Cindy Adair said:

Well, I have lost lots of palms despite quite of bit of effort and expense so still looking for better practical and safer options. 

Oh boy, I should have read back through the thread…Sorry to see those losses. I hole you are able to find your best solution over there. Good luck!

[Cindy Adair]

2 minutes ago, D. Morrowii said:

Oh boy, I should have read back through the thread…Sorry to see those losses. I hole you are able to find your best solution over there. Good luck!

Thanks D. Morriwii.

Everyone’s suggestions and kind words here always appreciated.

[Cindy Adair]

I am sharing a bit of the excellent and free newsletter from the Coconut Beetle Response team in HI.

https://www.crbhawaii.org

I truly want one of these trained dogs!

Read below:

“Canine program update:

In the second quarter of 2023, the canines surveyed 1,357,692 square feet (approximately 23 football fields!) of potential breeding areas and found 8 new breeding sites. The canine team continues to perform searches near airports and seaports on Oahu to support the broader response effort to manage populations near ports. “

CRB detection canine, Rider, checks for CRB in mulch. 

[Billeb]

On 6/29/2023 at 12:19 PM, Cindy Adair said:

 

Curse words would be heard for miles!!?!? 🤬 Those things are nasty! 
 

6 hours ago, Cindy Adair said:

…In the second quarter of 2023, the canines surveyed 1,357,692 square feet (approximately 23 football fields!) of potential breeding areas and found 8 new breeding sites. 

Good pooch. 🤘

 

-dale