Red palm weevil (RpW) poses a serious threat to the cultivation of date palms. it is considered to be the most destructive epidemic pest of palms, responsible for massive economic losses worldwide. Curative methods for RPW are not difficult to apply; however, the early detection of the pest remains a great challenge. Although several detection techniques have been implemented for the early detection of RPW, none of these methods have been proven to be reliable. Here, we use an optical-fiber-distributed acoustic sensor (DAS) as a paradigm shift technology for the early detection of RpW. our sensitive sensor shows a detection of feeding sound produced by larvae as young as 12 days, in an infested tree. In comparison with existing, commonly-used technologies, this novel sensing technique represents a cost-effective and non-invasive alternative that could provide 24-7, real-time monitoring of 1,000 palm trees or even more. It could also monitor the temperature, an essential feature to control farm fires, another major problem for the cultivation of palm trees around the world.Red palm weevil (RPW) (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) is a Coleopteran snout pest originating from tropical Asia 1 . In the past few decades, it has spread out to many regions worldwide, including North Africa, the Middle East, Mediterranean region, and parts of the Caribbean and Central America. This plague has wiped out many palm farms in various countries, and constitutes a severe agricultural problem 2-4 . In Gulf countries and the Middle East, $8 millions are spent, every year, only to remove infested palm trees 5 . By 2023, in Italy, Spain and France, it is expected that RPW control and loss of benefits will amount to around $225 million 5 .There are effective techniques to heal RPW-infested palm trees 6 ; however, detecting the RPW threat at an early stage (first two-to-three weeks of the weevil larvae stage) is pivotal, yet challenging 4 . When a palm tree shows visible signs of distress, it generally means that the infestation is well-advanced; at this point, it is too late to rescue the tree. There are several methods to detect this infestation 4,7-12 . For instance, trained dogs are used to smell the odor released from infested palms during the fermentation process 8 . Unfortunately, sensing such kind of odor is not an accurate, nor a selective process, because its efficiency is impacted by the presence of other volatiles. Alternatively, infested trees can be screened with a computer-based tomography system 7 . However, this technique lacks the practicality for fast and cost-effective scanning. The first detectable signals of an infested tree originate from the noise produced by the weevil larvae while consuming the core of a trunk. Therefore, the most promising early detection methods rely on using acoustic sensors 4,9-12 . Existing technologies mainly insert a sound probe into the tree trunk such that the probe records larvae sound in real-time. Unfortunately, this type of acoustic sensors is intrusive to the plant growth, and might cre...

The red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier), (Coleptera: Curculiondae) is a key pest of date palm in the Middle East. This weevil is currently being reported from over 50% of the date growing countries of the world. The date palm Phoenix dactylifera cropped area in the Middle East, has significantly increased during the last two decades where date palm is mainly propagated through offshoots. The red palm weevil larvae are often found in the offshoots, resulting in the spread of the pest and also its re-inoculation where RPW is already controlled. Currently, there are no quarantine protocols to ensure that date palm offshoots which are transported for planting, are free of RPW larvae. In this study, date palm offshoots were sprayed while still attached to the mother palm and also dipped separately with Fipronil 3.5% (Thripguard 35 SCTM) and Imidacloprid 35% (Confidor 350 SCTM) a day after detachment from the mother palm. Fipronil and Imidacloprid were tested at 0.008 % and 0.01%, respectively. Results revealed that dipping gave complete mortality of the larvae. Dipping was significantly better than spraying since spraying resulted in only partial mortality of the larvae. It was also seen that dipping offshoots in Fipronil 0.004% and 0.002% for 30 and 60 min, respectively, resulted in 100% mortality of the larvae tested. Further, toxicity studies resulted in complete mortality of larvae and adults that were exposed to offshoot tissue that was dipped in Fipronil at the above concentrations. For this reason, it is recommended to dip date palm offshoots in 0.004% Fipronil for 30 min before transporting to ensure complete mortality of the hidden larval stages, if any and complete certification and transport of the treated offshoots to the new planting site within 72 h of treatment.