Huge Florida Bismarkia succumbs to Weevil

[Troppoz]

These arrived in Darwin about 20 years ago. Major panic, people predicting that every palm tree in Australia would die etc.

Net result, a few palms did die but 20 years on its not a problem at all, plenty of palms (too many some may argue ) and there is hardly a mention of the weevil at all...

if they killed all the trees they would die out.

No Ken they did not have ANY significant effect on the palm population as explained above. Even if every palm tree in cultivation dropped dead we have the following species naturally occurring in the Darwin region;

Arenga australasica
Carpentaria acuminata
Corypha utan
Gronophyllum ramsayi
Hydriastele wendlandiana
Livistona benthamii
Livistona humilis
Livistona inermis
Livistona rigida
Livistona victoriae
Nypa fruticans
Ptychosperma bleeseri

None of these plants were impacted by the palm weevil

[Nigel]

Sean, probably because it was not the red palm weevil, the other palm weevil species seem to live in balance with palm trees. In Florida palms only get killed when they are pruned and the native weevil mistakes the fresh cuts for wounds found in a sick or dieing plant.

[Troppoz]

Sean, probably because it was not the red palm weevil, the other palm weevil species seem to live in balance with palm trees. In Florida palms only get killed when they are pruned and the native weevil mistakes the fresh cuts for wounds found in a sick or dieing plant.

Ah Nigel quite right, I thought it was the Red Palm Weevil but it is a completely unrelated nasty called Palm Leaf Beetle Brontispa longissima, my mistake Carry on


https://transact.nt.gov.au/ebiz/dbird/T ... le/371.pdf


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brontispa_longissima

[redsquirrel]

no flies on our Nige Sean
moths maybe (in his wallet,(only joking Nige) but no flies

[Nigel]

no flies on our Nige Sean
moths maybe (in his wallet,(only joking Nige) but no flies

Tell that to the flippin mossies