Current status of Red Palm Weevil infestation in East Coast of WAHIZATUL AFZAN AZMI The Red Palm Weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae) is the most severe pest of major cultivated palms, including coconut palm, date palm and oil palm. RPW infestation was first detected in 2007 by Department of Agriculture (DOA) of Malaysia in 58 localities in all seven districts of Terengganu, East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. An intensive survey in 2011 throughout Terengganu revealed that RPW caused death of as many as 550,000 coconut palms in 858 locations in over 800 ha of coconut plantations, villages and in Federal Land Development (FELDA) plantations, indicating a drastic increase and rapid spread of RPW population. Currently in 2016, the RPW can be found in five states – Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan and Terengganu, with the latter being the worst-hit. The symptom of attack is very ambiguous and hard to be detected until the collapse of the coconut palm crown. Current recommended methods for RPW management involve monitoring and mass trapping of adults with pheromone lures, cultural control and chemical treatments. One of the major aspects and strong emphasis in current development of pest control strategy is to use biological control rather than synthetic insecticides. The potential for using entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) as biocontrol agents of the RPW have been well studied in many countries. To date, UMT RPW research group has found one strain of Metarhizium anisopliae (META-G4) isolated from Terengganu which is infective to the RPW and have a potential to become major components in the IPM of RPW. The pathogenicity test showed that the concentration of 107 spores/mL may killed 100% of adult RPW between 12-14 days after treatment. However, these encouraging results were obtained in the laboratory tests and never been applied in the field. Some of the environmental factors (temperature, solar radiation, humidity) are critical as they may influence the performance of the EPF especially in tropical climate of Malaysia. Information obtained from this research will be the first step in the development of possible new biocontrol agent of this invasive coconut pest in Malaysia. |