Several years ago the periphery road of Santa Luċija was adorned by some 22 Canary Island date palm trees.

They were always taken care of and every year, in early June, the authorities used to cut the older fronds to be given to fishermen who would use them to build their kannizzati under which lampuki (dolphin fish) would gather only to be netted and later sold to us to consume between the months of July and November.

Since some five or six years ago two or three palm trees were attacked by the destructive red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus), which has since done devastating harm to the palm tree population in Malta and in many Mediterranean countries.

I have since written in both Maltese and English local newspapers about this distressing destruction of palm trees and phoned the authorities concerned drawing their attention to the precarious situation brought about by this insect in my home town.

Today, only a few of those palm trees remain. The rest, about 16, which had been infested and literally ruined by the weevil were cut down and destroyed by the Plant Health Directorate and these remaining few are falling victim to the killer weevil too.

Surprisingly, the destruction of one palm tree is all the fault of just one single female weevil. It lays her eggs, around 200, among the very top young fronds of the tree, which hatch into hungry larvae that devour the tender parts of the fronds and then tunnel through the internal tissue of the trunk and the soft fibers of each and every frond on the tree.

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