RED PALM WEEVIL - A SERIOUS PEST OF COCONUT AND ITS BIOLOGICAL CONTROL MEASURES

Abstract

Red palm weevil Rhychophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) Curculionidae: Coleoptera, a tissue boring insect is a serious pest in most of the palms. In India, it is a dangerous pest of coconut. Both larva and adult are the pests of the crop. The adult injures the palm with its snout for oviposition or lays eggs on the wounds found in the palms and the larva feeds on the soft tissues of the palm. The main symptoms of the attack of red palm weevil are oozing out of thick brown to yellowish fluids from the tunnels, appearance of the frass around the opening of the tunnels. Newer infestations are hardly detected and early detection of the infestations is also difficult. Thus it becomes a menace for the control of this pest. Avoiding wounds on the palms and clean cultivation of the crop can avoid the infestation to a considerable extent. The use of pesticides can control the infestation at the initial stages. But the use of chemical pesticides is found to deteriorate the quality of the crop as well as the land. Chemical pesticides are non-ecofriendly and non-human friendly. So this article suggests on the various available biological control of the pest such as pheromone traps, entomopathogenic organisms, predators and parasitoids. Biotechnological methods such as suppression of the vitellogenin genes and shredding of the x chromosomes can control the pest to a greater extent.