Battling the coconut beetle

[Taco]

Those of us in Samui and Phangan have surely noticed the browning and die off of the coconuts from this beetle that is raging though the islands. It seems to be really moving at a quick pace in Phangan and not many people seem to be doing much or anything to stop it. I recently purchased some beautiful sea view land that has a lot of healthy coco palms and I want to keep them that way. After going to the nursery twice I am not really confident they know what is best to prevent the beetles. They had a one kilo bag of some chemical they said you could spread around the roots once a year. The following 5 months the coconuts are inedible. My landlord where I stay now says you can drill a hole in the tree and put another chemical in and plug it again making the coconuts inedible.

What really is the best way to stop the first invasion of the beetle. As far as I can tell the beetles have not been spread to these trees but they are only 400 meters away.

I do not care if the solution is organic or not I only want to save the trees and I do not plan on harvesting the coconuts if that means keeping the beautiful palms alive and healthy.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[rice555]

Hello Taco, it's been discussed on this forum before, you might do a forum search

or google with "Thailand" in your search which will also popup TVF threads.

Off the top of my foggy brain, it was about spraying the trunk area for the beetle.

rice555

[sunsamourai]

look at the bottom of this page :

http://landscapefreelance.blogspot.com/search/label/pest%20control

[Trentham]

Do some research, perhaps on the internet, on these beetles. Many beetles crawl down the trunk of the tree and spend some time in the soil. If you find that this is the case with these insects you could try what my family have done back home in Australia with the elm leaf beetle. We kept the trunk of our trees sprayed with an ordinary household surface spray, especially after rain in case it had been washed off. We had good results and although some damage occurred, the elms still look very healthy. We just kept a band of about 30 centimetres sprayed - not the whole trunk.

If these beetles have an in ground cycle in their life cycle you could also try a chemical called Bifenthrin.and spray it around the base of the trees when the beetles are emerging from the ground on their way back up the trees.

Good luck.

[julemanden]

http://www.coconutboard.nic.in/protect.htm

I just bought some pellet poison witch i poor in from the top of the tree together with a little sand or soil... All my coconut trees was infested with beetles, but now they seem to be okay (If no rain you have to water them from the top twice a week)... . I lost 10 trees in 1 year, i hope no more!

Good luck!

[Gandtee]

I saved one of my palm trees when I saw the first signs of it dying. I climbed to the top and sprayed pesticide ( I cant remember the name) down into the top and into the holes.and it survived. Recently I lost an adjacent Palm tree and two coconut trees which I had planted from scratch.I have cut open the affected trees and deep inside were fat maggots and large black beetles. It seems to me that if you can get up to the top of the trees and blast them with pesticide you maybe in with a chance. As I am now 80 and well past my 'sell by date' I am reluctant to get up there and risk breaking my neck.

[Gandtee]

Try this link.

http://www.coconutboard.nic.in/protect.htm#black

[jeff2258]

I have been working with some doctor from the agriculture department few years ago and we can't find a solution to it. It is not only attacking coconut trees in Thailand, it also killing coconut trees in many countries. There is not only beetles that is killing the trees, there is black headed caterpillars too was found killing the trees at the same time. The beetles is feeding on the young leaf from the top and the caterpillars are eating the leaf from the bottom. We have tried drilling holes and injecting pesticides into the tree trunk but it didn't work. If there is strong wind or rain, the spreading is faster. Spraying pesticides is not a good solution, because the beetles hide and lay eggs in the young leaf that is not fully open up and the caterpillars can't be kill if spraying from the top.

Many researcher from India, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand tried many ways to solve the problems but unsuccessful. As you said that you are not interested to harvest the food, then injecting pesticides to the trees is the best solution. The pesticides injected into the trunk will be absorb to the leaves and when the beetles or caterpillars will be killed by eating it. One more beetle that kill the palm trees by eating inside the trunk is called weevil, it lays eggs in the trunk and the larva will start eating the inside when it hatched.

You can find more information on these beetles and caterpillar on the internet. I have lost all my files on my research done three years ago in Prachuap and Surat Thani, if not I can send to you, so that you can try it out. Make sure that you use something to cover the hole after drilling the tree trunk, because open wound can be infected by bacterial or fungus. Do not drill too deep and dilute what ever pesticide you use before injecting into the trunk, because too acidic will burn the tissue of the open wound causing it to rot inside and kill the tree. I hope this will answer some of your question, feel free to email me at [email protected] if you need further info. Good luck.

[ragpicker]

Have you seen these "beetles"? I suspect what is killing the trees are not beetle but rather Red Palm Weevils. These weevils are a major concern for anyone with coconut or palm trees. As jeff mentions, the weevil lays her eggs, the larvae work their way inside the tree eating away the guts of the tree. Many times you won't even know the tree is infected until it falls over due to having nothing left inside to support it. I tried spraying.... no good/useless, I tried pheromone... I caught quite a few of them in my traps but it seemed to also attract more to the trees. The only thing that seems to slow them down is pesticide pumped into the tree trunk. I have drilled holes into the trunk as far as the tree center, hammered in a 3/4" piece of pvc, and fill this pvc pipe with pesticide every month and cap it. Seems to be working after four years, I've yet to lose a palm tree and I have about 20 trees with this pvc pipe sticking out of them.

[Taco]

Thanks everyone for your input on this... I also found this article which was good. Hispine Beetle sounds like the culprit

http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ad522e/ad522e07.htm

I know when Yingluk made a trip down here, Samui and Koh Tao they planned on releasing a predator bug. (we all know how those usually work... backfire)

Does anyone have a suggestion of the actual pesticide to use inserting into the trunk? We are quite limited on the island of what we can buy so might have to go to Surat.

[Carlos Primeros]

If you can get to the top of the palm trees then you should pour a granular pesticide called Furadan into the shoulders of the leaves up to the top. This works quite well. I treat my coconut palms every few months with that. And if you are up there already it is also a good idea to spray some liquid pesticide at the same time into the new emerging leaves. And whenever you see a big black beetle with a horn like a rhino, kill it instantly. These beetles are also ravaging the new leaves in the palm heart. Once the palm heart is infested and destroyed, you can forget about the tree. Then the battle is lost....

Good luck

Cheers,

Carlos

[samuijimmy]

I've not been over to Koh Phangan for a couple of months, now, to see how much more damage there is there, now, but on Samui, compared with a couple of years ago, the red beetle seems to be getting under control .... far less damage now...

They (Agricultural dept) have been using Pheromone traps, dotted around Samui, to trap the males. (Blue lantern like things, one sees them in various places ).... this really seems to have helped solved the problem...

Some where within this forum, I have previously posted images... both of the red beetle and the traps.

I saw a bit of the same problem, when riding through PhangNga regions of the west coast, last week, but saw no traps. From my observation, spray control, seems pretty useless... especially on the taller trees.