Control of the Apical and Trunk Infestations of Date Palm by Red Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, Using a Simple and Inexpensive Injection Technique

Nasraoui, B., M. Jaddou, Z. Musallam, A. Al-Shareedi, Y. Al-Fahid, H. Chebbi, M. Asiri and A. Al-Ghamdi. 2024. Control of the Apical and Trunk Infestations of Date Palm by Red Palm Weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, Using a Simple and Inexpensive Injection Technique. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 42(1): 82-87. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP-001222 Red palm weevil (RPW) is the most dangerous pest of palms worldwide. In date palms, RPW attacks mainly the trunk, but apical infestation can occur and is being observed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Currently not managed by the farmers, those apical infestations become sources of heavy infestations to other healthy palm trees. In this study carried out during 2020 in 6 locations in the KSA, a trial to control RPW on date palm by using a simple, easy, and low-cost trunk injection method against apical and trunk infestations with insecticides namely emamectin benzoate (50 g/L), imidacloprid (200 SL) or deltamethrin (2.5%) was carried out. Results obtained showed that trunk injection of the apically infested date palm, by using non-diluted emamectin benzoate, indicated that 90.6% of the palm trees totally recovered. The same technique was used with the date palm infested trunk, with 100% success in killing all RPW instars in the palm trunk. The use of the other non-diluted insecticides (imidacloprid and deltamethrin) was not too efficient against the date palm trunk infestation, killing only 64.25% and 53.91% of the RPW instars, respectively. Keywords: Apical infestation, date palm, emamectin benzoate, red palm weevil, trunk infestation, trunk injection