I still remember my first visit to the Vai Palm Forest in 1985, and the awe I felt at its uniqueness and the tropical beauty of those tremendous palm trees. And I remember hundreds of people wandering around admiring its grandeur and the wonderful flora developing in that magical atmosphere.

Over the years, there had been nothing better than to drive along the beach-front roads enjoying the shoreline with all the palm trees stretching alongside.

These days, however, in our demos a lot of those palm trees are either long gone or brown, drooping corpses waiting for a merciful hand to cut them down and put them out of their misery.

The Khronicles has written about the problem of the red palm weevil before, but I find it frightening that infestation was first noticed in Kato Gouves in 2006, and now a year and a half has passed leaving in its wake many more dead palms while countless others are slowly dying.

Healthy ‘lean and narrow’ palms next to infected ones

Recently we spoke with Kato Gouves resident Mr. Yianni Livathara, an entomologist with the department of plant production at the Agriculture Technology School (TEI), who is very concerned with the course the infestation has taken and the lack of its containment.

“The problem of the red palm weevil first appeared here, on the Washingtonia sp. palms imported to Iraklion in May of 2005 from Egypt, and on the Phoenix canariensis in Hersonisos in November of 2006,” Mr. Livatharas said. “Shortly after, the first invasion in Kato Gouves began, starting with the eastern side of the township, and now the weevil can be found throughout the entire Gouves demos – from Kokkini Hani, and in the Malia Township.”

The eggs of the red palm weevil are cream color and all the stages of the weevil’s biological cycle unfold within the innards of the palm tree as they cannot take place anywhere else. The females birth up to 300 eggs in several trunk openings of the palms, but mainly in cuts suffered during pruning of palm leaves at the base. The biological cycle lasts four months, and the adult weevil can fly for one kilometer without stopping.

Mr. Livatharas (center) meeting with Mrs. Klidi and garden columnist Bob Bayes in The Khronicles offices.

According to Mr. Livathara’s research, the palms most resilient to the red weevil are the Chamaerops humilis and Washingtonia robusta – or the palms with the lean and narrow trunks – which have been found to survive next to infested thick-trunk palms like Areca catechu, Arenga pinnata, Washingtonia filifera etc.

Growing caterpillars rig openings as they move towards the innards of the palm of up to one meter, feeding on soft fibers, eventually destroying the heart of the palm, while older leaves begin to droop like an open umbrella.

Generally, the weevil will stay in one palm area as long as it finds enough food and only fly to another area when all the palms in the first area have been destroyed.

“There is no effective method to deal with the weevil problem,” Mr. Livatharas explained. “The primary problem most countries face is the timely tracking of the bug and spotting of the infested palms.”

“And of course,” he points out, “the use of toxic insecticides in public areas and city parks warrant particular attention.”

He suggests several preventive and repressive measures, such as: Better controlling of the import of palms and the timely localization of infested trees, as a systematic and detailed check of palms could control the spreading of the weevil.

Also, he spoke of the use of several bio-acoustic instruments (careful here not to mistake other sounds for weevil sounds), keeping detailed mapping of all areas where infested palms have been discovered, avoidance of senseless pruning, biological confronting (with parasites and viruses) and chemical warfare with strong pesticides.

Nothing is entirely effective though.

Burning of the heavily infested palm trees is recommended, but beware because many eggs and caterpillars have survived due to the presence of high humidity.

Mr. Livatharas emphasizes in his study how other European countries – mainly Spain and Italy – have successfully dealt with infested palms by covering them with nylon and then cutting them so that the bugs do not escape to other healthy palms during cutting. Also, preventive spraying of neighboring palms is recommended.

Also, he said, in those countries’ homes and parks they spray with natural insecticides like Rheum Rhababrum based on Chrysanthemum Cinerariae folium and Derris Elliptica substances.

“In two months” Mr. Livatharas warned, “10,000 weevils will be ready to lay their eggs, so unless the local and central governments seriously consider to effectively treating this matter, and local residents deal with infested palms in a more conscientious manner, the palms of Crete will head towards extinction.”