Efficacy of baits for red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus olivier under constant laboratory condition
2020
Norman Kamarudin | Mohamad Haris Hussain | Wahizatul Afzan Azmi
Rhynchophorus ferrugineus or also known as red palm weevil (RPW) had caught the attention of government and researchers in Malaysia for its aggressive behaviour in attacking various palm species including coconut palm and date palm. To date, their presence was recorded in oil palm plantations in Terengganu, Malaysia by using pheromone mass trapping technique but no symptom of attack was detected up to now. The pheromone traps were filled with natural food baits such as sugar cane and pineapple, together with synthetic pheromone lure to attract the RPW entering the trap. However, the most preferred bait by the RPW still remained inconclusive. In this study, a Y-tube olfactometer experiment was conducted to identify the most preferred bait by the RPW under laboratory conditions. The result showed that pineapple was the most preferred bait by RPW compared to other treatments (F=20.44, d.f=7, p<0.05). The study showed that oil palm cabbage was the least preferred bait by RPW, indicating that the pest was less attracted to oil palm. However, their presence in the oil palm plantation recently gave us a warning that we need to be more cautious to ensure their populations will not jeopardise the oil palm industry in future.
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