Here at Villas Andrea

Last Wednesday I passed on information from the town hall about the red weevil (picudo rojo) that is destroying palm trees here in Spain.

It seems that one of our neighbours has encountered these nasty creatures in her garden. She described the weevil as largish, red and noisy.

Concerned that the weevil would attack the palm trees in her garden, our neighbour visited the town hall to enquire about what to do. They directed her to a shop where she could buy the necessary insecticide which she has now done.

Hopefully, her timely intervention will have prevented the weevil from laying its eggs and ultimately destroying her palm trees.

To give you some idea of what to look for, here are a couple of photos showing the picudo rojo. The weevils range in size from between 2 and 5cm long and are about 1cm wide.

The trees mostly affected are the Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and the Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis) so if you have either of these trees it may be as well to follow the recommended treatments in Autumn and Spring to prevent the terminal damage the picudo rojo can inflict.