Some 4,500 palm trees have fallen victim to the red palm weevil since this pest entered Malta in 2007, the Parliamentary Secretariat for Agriculture has confirmed.
Last year alone the red palm weevil, which spends all its stages inside the palm tree itself decimated 474 palm trees, figures show. But experts warned that the figures represent a conservative estimate as a number of cases are never reported to the authorities.
Biodiversity expert Alfred Baldacchino cautioned that more devastation could be on its way if authorities keep turning a blind eye to the importation of trees from countries where new pests have been reported. In view of this, he called for a ban on imports from such countries.
“While recently there has been a big fuss on a new bug attacking carob trees, olive groves could be next as several Mediterranean countries have already reported cases of infection in this particular species,” Mr Baldacchino said, when contacted by The Sunday Times of Malta.
He noted that until a few years ago, importation was not rife as the majority of trees used to be grown in local nurseries. However, he said that producers nowadays were choosing the easy way out by ordering trees directly from abroad to boost profits.
“Unfortunately successive administrations showed no resolve to address this threat, as their only concern was to allow more imports in order to boost business,” he said.
The biodiversity expert said pests which enter an alien environment like Malta, are very virtually unstoppable as they have no natural predators. As a result they either die once there are no more trees on which they could feed, or worse, they could shift to other species. The latter phenomenon has already happened with the mulberry longhorn which had decimated the black mulberries (tut) and is now attacking the white species (ċawsli).
Scientifically known as rhynchophorus ferrugineus, the red palm weevil spread from tropical Asia, to Africa and eventually entered Europe through the importation of adult palm trees. In the case of Malta it is thought to have entered through Sicily and Spain.
The varieties mostly infected were the canary island palm, the date palm and the washingtonia. The dwarf fan palm which is the only indigenous species was the least prone to infection.
While there has been some success in the treatment of these pests with chemicals, Mr Baldacchino said the cure was deemed to be too laborious and costly and so was not seen as a viable solution.
Figures tabled in parliament by Environment Minister Leo Brincat in reply to a question filed by Nationalist MP Ċensu Galea show that the highest number of reported cases were located in Ta’ Qali when 88 trees fell victim to this pest.
It also transpired that in Gozo which had been initially spared from the devastation, there were 97 cases, of which 23 in Victoria. This data also confirmed that the pest has now spread to Comino as three palm trees had to be uprooted.
Additional data obtained by The Sunday Times of Malta through the Parliamentary Secretariat of Agriculture showed that the worst year was 2010, when the number of cases was 1,067.
Since then figures have been in decline, but there is very little evidence that this pest is being eradicated as each year hundreds of trees are still being lost.