Adult palms
Rhinoceros beetle: Oryctes rhinoceros
Symptoms of damage

• Adult beetles bore into the palms and chew the tender tissues
• Spindle to break and droop.
• Entry holes - presence of chewed-up tissues.
• Infested leaves - shortened, broken and distorted.
• Fruits - the upper portion of the bunch get underdeveloped and dried.
• Damage to the heart of the palm - way for the entry of fungi and bacteria,
• Induce rotting in the bud.

Identification of the pest

• Grub: Sluggish, white, ‘C’ shaped.
• Adult: Stout brownish black with a horn projecting from the head.

Management
1. Cultural control
Sanitation

• All possible breeding sites are to be eliminated from the plantation.

2. Mechanical
Iron hooking

• The adult beetles which burrow deep into the crowns of young palm
• Extracted by means of a hooked out (metal rod)
• After extraction of the beetle, the leaf axils around the injured spindle are to be filled with a mixture of

mancozeb (fungicide) and fine sand at the ratio of 3g: 1kg.

3. Chemical control
Prophylactic leaf axil filling

• Leaf axil filling in severely infested young plantation during April–May, September–October and December–January

using sevidol Granule @ 25 g per palm per application mixed with 200 g of sand.

Treatment of breeding sites

• breeding materials cannot be eliminated - treated with carbaryl 50 WP at 0.01 per cent on w/w basis.

4. Biological
a. Baculovirus

• Release of Baculovirus infected adult beetles (@ 10 – 15 beetles/ha
• It is the most economical, effective and easy method for dissemination of the inoculum.

b. Metarhizium anisopliae

• Application of M. anisopliae in the breeding sites is very effective for the control of grubs.
  

5. Attractants
a. Pheromone traps

• Rhinolure vane trap hanged at a height of 10ft.
• It is found to be very effective in trapping adult beetles

b. Mud pots

• Castor seed powder fermented in rice water and kept in mud pots at ground level
• It is an efficient method for trapping adult beetles.