The Central Society of Horticulture and Agriculture held a public conference at the Agriculture Palace on combating the red palm weevil. For a few years now, this palm tree predator has been wreaking havoc on the French Riviera.
It’s hard to imagine the Promenade des Anglais without its palm trees. Yet, there is a threat looming over this green heritage of the French Riviera, the red palm weevil. Originally from Indonesia, this small insect has spread to the Middle East and Egypt, then to Europe through the importation of plants. This Thursday, Benoit Kandel, the deputy mayor, presided over a public conference of the Central Society of Horticulture and Agriculture on this theme: “Alert! Our palm trees are in danger: the red palm weevil has arrived”.
A collective effort
Combating the proliferation of this palm tree predator is one of the challenges faced by the Nice municipality. “We reacted in 2009,” explains Benoit Kandel, “the mayor of Nice proposed to neighboring communities to organize by creating a steering committee”. The goal of this entity is to coordinate efforts between the capital of the Riviera and 93 neighboring areas. On July 21, 2010, the fight against the red palm weevil became a national plan, with the issuance of a ministerial order obligating communities to treat their palm trees. On August 17, 2010, a decision by the European Union made it possible to obtain subsidies to develop new combat methods. For the Alpes-Maritimes, this represents 250,000 euros in funding. The result of a “great collective effort”, according to Benoit Kandel, but this will not happen without “the work of communities, professionals, and citizens”.
An expensive treatment
While the city of Nice is relatively spared (one infected palm tree, last January 28th at Square Alicante), it is not the same for its neighboring cities Antibes and Vallauris. The insect tends to reproduce and move quickly (it lays between 200 and 300 eggs per palm tree). Its expansion is measured using traps (1 per 10 hectares). All these data are collected in the Geographic Information System (GIS), a common database of the Alpes-Maritimes. In case of infection, there are two methods. The method of felling, which turns out to be costly (2,500 euros for the cut and from 5,000 to 8,000 euros to replant a palm tree) and disfigures the landscape. The other method is to treat the palm tree by spraying it monthly with products based on chloronicotinyls and by pruning the fronds. This technique has the advantage of being less expensive and less time-consuming than felling.
This policy of fighting the red palm weevil also has an economic objective, as the deputy mayor points out, “if we lose the palm trees, we harm the tourist image of the French Riviera”.
