Efficacy of baits for red palm weevil (rpw), rhynchophorus ferrugineus olivier under constant laboratory condition

Abstract

Rhynchophorus ferrugineus or also known as red palm weevil (RPW) had caught the attention of government and researchers in M alaysia for its aggressive behaviour in attacking various palm species including coconut palm and date palm. To date, their pr esence was record ed in oil palm plantations in Terengganu,M alaysia by using ph eromone mass trapping technique but no symptom of attack was detected up to now. The ph eromone traps werefill ed with naturalfood baits such as sugar cane and pin eap pl e, together with synthetic ph eromone lure to attract the RPW entering the trap. However, the most pr ef erred bait by the RPW still remained inconclusive. In this study, a Y-Tube olfactometer exp eriment was conducted to identify the most pr ef erred bait by the RPW under laboratory conditions. The result showed that pinea p pl e was the most pr ef erred bait by RPW compar ed 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. Howe ver, their pr esence in the oil palm plantation recently gave us a warning that we need to be more cautious to ensure their populations will not j eopardise the oil palm industry infuture.