Main features and spread of the pest

This weed attacks mainly palms of the Phoenix or Canary Palm species, and more recently also the Washingtonia species, causing significant damage that may lead to the death of the palms.

Due to its rapid spread, the European Union considered this pest to be of mandatory control and approved emergency measures against Rhynchophorus Ferrugineus.
Since 2007, palm trees in the borough of Albufeira and throughout the western Algarve have been devastated by this beetle. In the meantime, it has spread to other municipalities. For example, in the borough of Faro, where the century-old palm trees in Jardim Manuel Bivar were attacked by this infestation, leading to their removal. The same is happening in other areas of this municipality, such as the Montenegro, Gambelas and Pontes de Marchil areas, among others. Dead palm trees were also detected in the area of the Algarve Barrocal.

As it has spread all over the Algarve and not only there (in the Lisbon area there are also cases of palm trees attacked and destroyed), it is crucial to fight this infestation through preventive treatments in order to try to control the damage caused by this beetle.

What are the warning signs?

The most visible symptoms are the drying up of the new leaves for no apparent reason. In a more advanced stage of infestation, all the leaves of the palm will decay and the crown will become flattened. The death of the plant occurs when it dries up completely, moving the insect to another palm tree.

Since 2007 the rate of contaminated or dead palm trees in all national territory is high, having caused irrecoverable damage to the Portuguese landscape heritage .

Treatment

To reduce the spread of the beetle to the remaining palm trees, it is vital to fight this infestation through preventive treatments, using chemical treatments from April to October and biological treatments from November to March.

Since March 2011, our company has been carrying out both curative and preventive treatments in private palm trees and those located in public gardens, with very successful and visible results of 99%.