Cultural management

  • Remove and burn all wilting or damaged palms in coconut gardens to prevent further perpetuation of the pest.
  • Avoid cutting of green leaves. If needed, they should be cut about 120 cm away from the stem in order to prevent inward movement of the grubs through the cut end.
  • Disposal of felled trunks, tree stumps, dying and dead palms, dead plants
  • Avoiding wounds, mechanical injuries and stripping of leaves
  • Avoiding damage to roots and stem during cultural operation.
  • Removal of rhinoceros beetle from the hole using an arrow headed rod and filling the hole with neem cake 100 g + 150 g sand to prevent weevil attack on young plants.
  • Arranging bucket traps (Pheromone traps) at 1-1.5 m height on tree trunk to attract the pest and the weevils collected in the buckets killed using poison baiting.
  • The affected plant stem is scraped off and swabbed with coal tar.
  • Release of sterile males to compete with the normal males to reduce the progeny.
  • Chiselling out the affected portions and filling with concrete mixture so that the plant can withstand strong winds.