6 days ago
The race against time to save iconic palm trees from tiny bug
& Nayara Batschke
Uruguay 's iconic palm trees are facing a devastating attack from the red palm weevil, a 5-centimetre insect that arrived from Southeast Asia in 2022.
The pest has already devoured thousands of palms across the country, with half of Montevideo's 19,000 trees now infected.
The weevil causes trees to collapse within weeks by boring into trunks and allowing larvae to tunnel and consume internal tissue.
Despite initial delays, Uruguayan authorities have now declared the fight against the weevil a "national priority," allocating funds for pesticides and other control methods.
There are growing fears that the weevil could spread to native trees in Uruguay's UNESCO biosphere reserve and potentially across the South American continent.
