An “alarm” has sounded in the palm forest of Vai as for the first time the so-called palm of Theophrastos is attacked by the red beetle, which was first detected in Crete in 2006.

“This is an outbreak in a species of palm tree in which this particular enemy had not caused problems until now. This is very serious. It had created problems for other palm trees, such as Canary, in gardens and parks mainly,” explained the Associate Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Manolis Roditakis, on the show “Live with Antigone” of CRETA Television.

“We first detected a beetle in the forest in 2010. However, we had never seen an attack on a tree, regarding the Theofrastos palms,” explained to CRETA Television the Director of Lassithi Forests, Manolis Koudoumas.

The first infestation in Wai was found in a large palm tree last August, which could not be saved. In the last 10 days, the Forestry Directorate has again identified affected palm trees, in which, in the majority, the situation is also irreversible. As Mr. Koudoumas estimates, the palm trees that have been identified so far are estimated at 30 and 20 of them have been cut.

“As we enter the forest we find new trees that have been attacked by the beetle. The vast majority of them are weak and very small trees. They are obviously the most vulnerable. We have cut off the dry ones, we have destroyed them, because they have beetles in them at all stages of their life. On those that have not been destroyed, we use insecticide to fight the beetle.”

“We are still at the beginning. We are in a situation where we are simply capturing a problem, which problem we do not know what dimensions it has. The attacks go back at least 4-5 months. They are not current. Now we see the result. Our proposal is to carry out systematic monitoring of the forest over time, on a weekly basis, in a very large number of palm trees, perhaps using technological means, such as aerial, for the supervision, with the assistance of ELMEPA”, noted Mr. Roditakis.

The Secretary of the Decentralized Administration of Crete and Forester, Maria Kozyraki, attributes the situation to climate change. “It’s tragic I could say. Unfortunately, we will probably see flora and fauna disappear, either from attacks, or because they will not be able to survive in the given weather conditions. However, a species such as the Theophrastus palm, proven by doctoral theses in Universities, very resistant to the red beetle, which until recently destroyed other palm species, such as the Canary – an ornamental palm very widespread in horticulture – we see that it also becomes very vulnerable and offended. This is a secondary attack on Vai. A secondary insult is when something that under normal circumstances would not happen, these conditions are created exogenously, so that this insult occurs.”

“It is a change that worries us. It has not been noticed elsewhere, as for example in Preveli, that we have such arrays of Theophrastos. So, it’s an isolated incident. But we should look at it very carefully, does this mean something more important or is it – and we hope so – an isolated outbreak of an enemy and there will be a recession in the next period”, added Mr. Roditakis.

“From now on we are informing the Ministry, in order to come forward and draw up an action plan, which will include various activities in the event of an extensive attack,” said Mr. Koudoumas.

The palm forest in Vai is of great importance for Europe.

The Theophrastus palm is one of the two native palm species of Europe and outside of Crete it occurs only locally in south-western Turkey. Clumps of Theophrastus palms exist in 10 more locations in Crete but in small populations. The forest in Vai is the largest in Crete and probably in Europe, as, together with the offshoots, it has approximately 35,000 palm trees.