The talk on the destructive palm-tree weevil or beetle was not all conducted within a room in Almuñécar, but also took to the streets for practical demonstrations.

A demonstration was given on palm trees along the Paseo de Reina Sofía, as a the finishing touch to a very informative lecture on this plague that threatens to wipe out the Costa Tropical’s palm-tree population.

The practical demonstration took place in the afternoon after a morning of theory work in the Casa de la Cultura. Several different methods of plague control were shown: trapping techniques, treatment with nematodes (parasitic roundworm used in pest control) and beauveria bassiana, which is a fungus used as a biological insecticide to control a number of pests, such as different beetles.

One of the trees selected for a demonstration was one that is infected and the instructors showed how to use the equipment involved for the task.

Editorial comment: If you have a palm tree on your property and you didn’t go along… you had better hope that your gardener did, because it was a golden opportunity to “know your enemy.”

News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)