The palms that were already lost

When we took on a garden above Cala Tarida, some of the Canary date palms were already dead, and had been for a while.

Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, the red palm weevil, has been working through the Balearics for two decades. It goes for Phoenix canariensis above anything else, and by the time a Canary palm looks wrong from the ground, the damage is done — the larvae have been feeding inside the crown for months, and the crown is hollowed out.

What we found

Pruning the surviving palms, we found dead weevils in the crowns. The infestation was already in the garden. Nothing visible from the ground had shown it.

What we did

We treated the survivors, put them on a monitored cycle, and pruned properly. Timing matters, because fresh cuts release the volatiles that attract the weevil, and pruning at the wrong time of year invites exactly what you are trying to prevent.

What we do differently on new planting

Where we plant new palms, we plant Washingtonia. The weevil largely leaves them alone. We treat an established Phoenix canariensis because it is already there and worth keeping. We do not plant new ones.

If you have Canary palms, they need looking at on a schedule, not when something looks wrong. By then it is usually a removal rather than a treatment.