The nasty cousin

First we had the red beetles that have devastated the palm trees in the area. Now we have the black cousin which is devastating agaves. We had two of these plants growing in pots both of which were attacked by the beetle. The agave is the plant from which the Mexicans make tequila (ours you understand were merely ornamental).

The first signs on our plants were the leaves turning yellow. Then they collapsed, you could literally pull them off the plant. As you did, the crown of the plant gave off a sweet sickly smell and when you dug down into the compost, there were large white grubs (the kind Bear Grylls would make a meal off). Further down in the compost, I found the beetles which looked like picudo roja but were black.

It seems that these beetles are now attacking parks and gardens throughout the Vega Baja where the agave plants are grown adding to the misery of their red cousins. Speaking of which, it is now feared that the red beetle, which was first thought to only attack canary palms, will move on to other species of palm trees once all the canary palms have gone. The date palms and the Washingtonians may well be next.