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When it comes to tropical landscaping, palm trees won’t fail to conjure up the idea of an island escape. Healthy palm trees in your backyard will make your property look like a vibrant summer destination.Although these trees effectively add an exotic element to your garden, they can throw too much shade across your lawn and stop you from growing other plants you want. Additionally, they can potentially cause severe damage to your property when their fronds fall. Palm trees are also vulnerable to nutritional problems, diseases, and parasites.Perhaps you’re worried about the recently-discovered palm tree parasite called the Phantasma Scale or wondering whether salt could kill your palm tree. We’re here to give you the answers to some of the questions you have in mind.
Although palm trees are beautiful additions to any landscape, they also attract insects. Some invasive insects won’t cause harm to the plant. However, others can severely compromise a palm tree’s health.
The red palm weevil originated in tropical Asia but has migrated to Africa, Europe, and the United States. Moreover, they usually infect oil palms, date palms, sago palms, and coconut palms. Their ability to fly up to 30 miles per day allows red palm weevils to move from place to place without difficulty quickly.This insect resembles a beetle with a red head and a black abdomen. Moreover, it lays its creamy white, shiny, oblong legs on a palm tree trunk. The eggs that hatch into larvae burrow their way inside the trunk and kill the tree from the inside out.It’s only a matter of time before the palm tree shows signs of a red palm weevil infestation, such as mutilated and sparse leaves toward the center of the crown and brown liquid oozing from finger-sized holes in the trunk, especially near the frond bases.At this point, you’ll want to prevent the insects from spreading by burning the infested tree’s wood and leaves. It’s also best to protect your other trees by spraying them with insecticides.
The giant palm borer is a beetle that attacks Washingtonia and Phoenix palm varieties. Furthermore, this devastating grub can grow up to two inches in length and live up to ten years in a palm tree’s trunk. They weaken the tree’s structure as they eat away at its interior wood.The adult giant palm borers have a taste for the wood of trees stressed by heavy pruning or severe transplant shock. A palm tree showing signs of a massive palm borer infestation has drooping and yellowing fronds, dead branches, and quarter-sized holes in its trunk. Over time, the trunk folds up in areas where the wood was eaten away.Unfortunately, there’s no treatment available for palm trees infested with palm borers. If these insects invade a single tree in your palm grove, you’ll want to destroy it and test its surrounding trees for infestation.Since palm trees that suffer from water stress and poor nutrition are vulnerable to attack, it’s best to keep them in excellent health by having your soil tested to determine the need for fertilization. It would help if you also watered them during periods of drought. It’s important to note that spraying palm trees with insecticides won’t do anything to keep palm borers at bay.
Thrips are fringe-winged insects that look like worms with legs. Moreover, thrips are often less than one-sixteenth of an inch in length, and their colors range from black to yellowish brown to amber.Although these pests aren’t as harmful as red palm tree weevils and giant palm borers, they feast on a palm tree’s leaves and cause fronds to develop brown or yellow blotches that eventually turn silvery and black. It’s worth noting that thrips won’t kill your palm tree. However, they can make it more vulnerable to disease and invasion by more destructive insects.You can eliminate thrips by removing heavily infested and damaged fronds and spraying the palm tree with a soap solution to knock thrips off the tree and prevent them from returning. It’s also best to use insecticides.
Although these insects had a well-known presence in Hawaii, they were discovered in Florida on Canary Island date palms in 2018. Phantasma scale is a mussel-shaped pest measuring around 1.25 mm in length. Their size makes them difficult to spot with the naked eye. While they can’t move far, gusts of wind can help them spread to other trees.While they can impact many ornamental plant species, they’re especially attracted to palms. When they invade a palm tree, they usually populate the upper surfaces of its leaves. Furthermore, cautionary signs of a phantasma scale infestation include blotchy yellow patches on the leaves, stunted growth, and loss of plant vigor.Since the phantasma scale is a relatively new pest, no known home remedies and treatments can eradicate it. If you suspect an infestation, it’s best to contact a certified pest control expert to limit the damage and prevent it from spreading to healthy palm trees.
If you’re not comfortable with herbicides, you may use salt to kill a diseased palm tree. The sodium in salt works to prevent the flow of vital nutrients such as magnesium and potassium. These nutrients play a significant role in producing chlorophyll, a pigment that gives plants their green color while helping them create their own food through photosynthesis.If you’re looking to kill a palm tree, you’ll want to make a line of salt around the tree. You can mix a cup of salt with two cups of water, drill holes around the tree’s roots, and pour the salt solution into the holes.However, you should know that some palm tree species can tolerate salt water. These varieties include Washingtonia spp, Washingtonia palm, saw palmetto, sabal palmetto, cabbage palm, and Serenoa repens.
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