The Town Hall is to carry out a pilot scheme to apply preventative treatment to a selection of the town’s most important palm trees
Corruption is not the only plague that is causing irreparable damage in Marbella. Last week the passing of the red palm weevil left ugly scars in two of the municipality’s most emblematic spots: in the church square in San Pedro Alcántara and in Marbella’s old town near the building known as the “Hospitalillo”, where hundred-year-old palm trees have had to be felled. Their trunks had been eaten away on the inside, leaving them practically hollow.
It is feared that many other palm trees in the area could also be affected even though they show no symptoms. The red palm weevil attacks silently, laying its eggs inside the tree’s bud. The larvae gradually start to eat into the trunk. Up to three years can pass before the tree shows any outward signs of the presence of the parasite. By that time it is too late and the tree has to be felled at the base of the trunk.
The plague was brought to Andalucía via infected palm trees imported from Egypt to the Motril area more than ten years ago. The first signs were not noticed in Marbella until November 2005. Now Marbella Town Hall has decided to carry out a pilot scheme which involves drilling into infected tree trunks to inject a chemical solution which in theory ought to kill the insects, explained the councillor responsible for Parks and Gardens, Pablo Moro.
Nevertheless the main problem lies in the absence of external symptoms to differentiate the healthy trees from the infected ones. Therefore it has been decided that the treatment will be applied as a preventative measure to 214 trees in the municipality selected according to their location and age. These include the San Pedro Alcántara palm grove, as well as trees in El ángel and the old town.
Regards