October 2015. A request for information from a member in Israel: how does the red palm weevil find its host? There is a belief that the fronds of date palms shoudl be stripped from the trunk every year in August, and laid out to dry. Surely, this is not a good idea if the red palm weevil finds its host by smell?

The usual recommendation is either to leave the fronds to wither naturally or to cut them a metre from the trunk.

In response, a member said that the pruning will make no difference to the red palm weevils, except that they might come to the pruned palms first. The others will be attacked, pruned or not. Moreover, pruning is useful in that it detects early infestations, and may even be a trap for the insects.

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