Orchid weevil, the most damaging pest in Indonesia

[ramadayapati]

I've been dealing with this particular pest since the first time cultivating orchids back in time. Orchid weevil / Orchidophilus atterimus / Curculionidae is a native species from tropical Asia especially Indonesia, my homeland. I spotted them in the natural vegetation several times during exploration in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and West Papua. It larvae's natural host including pseudobulbs of Dendrobium spp (esp. section formosae, spatulata, and phalaenanthe), Eria spp, and several other members of Dendrobiinae. The adult phase has wider range of diet; from buds to young shoots of the generas mentioned above, Phalaenopsis, and of course Paphiopedilum. Recently, they've invading my screen house and laying eggs on several Paphiopedilums. The damages from orchid weevil larvae are quite bad and sometimes kill the plant because they're drilling from the leaf axils to deep inside to the growth core.

Early damage from the adult, usually they are chewing newly emerged shoots while laying one two clutch of eggs per pseudobulb which gonna hatch in several days. Its a symptom for the upcoming terror story.

Several months after with a ready to transform larvae...

The larvae will stays around 4 months inside the pesudobulb tissues before metamorphosing. Each adult will laying another terrorizing eggs for two months around 1 - 2 clutch per week.
Surprisingly, they barely attack the local species but mostly succulent type Paphs species and hybrid like in subgenus Brachypetalum, Parvisepalum, and Paphiopedilum which not naturally distributed in Indonesia.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8QmitImFmZZbzdIY3pKVm4ySEU/edit?usp=sharing
Its the adult female trapped in flask, we're trying to breed them for bio-pesticide research. (Sorry for the backsound, my colleague just cant stop talking )

 

[Chicago Chad]

West Papua

PLEASE tell me you have pics of West Papua plants in situ!!!

Also- your links are broken on the post.

 

[Erythrone]

I've been dealing with this particular pest since the first time cultivating orchids back in time. Orchid weevil / Orchidophilus atterimus / Curculionidae is a native species from tropical Asia especially Indonesia, my homeland. I spotted them in the natural vegetation several times during exploration in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and West Papua. It larvae's natural host including pseudobulbs of Dendrobium spp (esp. section formosae, spatulata, and phalaenanthe), Eria spp, and several other members of Dendrobiinae. The adult phase has wider range of diet; from buds to young shoots of the generas mentioned above, Phalaenopsis, and of course Paphiopedilum. Recently, they've invading my screen house and laying eggs on several Paphiopedilums. The damages from orchid weevil larvae are quite bad and sometimes kill the plant because they're drilling from the leaf axils to deep inside to the growth core.

Early damage from the adult, usually they are chewing newly emerged shoots while laying one two clutch of eggs per pseudobulb which gonna hatch in several days. Its a symptom for the upcoming terror story.

Several months after with a ready to transform larvae...

The larvae will stays around 4 months inside the pesudobulb tissues before metamorphosing. Each adult will laying another terrorizing eggs for two months around 1 - 2 clutch per week.
Surprisingly, they barely attack the local species but mostly succulent type Paphs species and hybrid like in subgenus Brachypetalum, Parvisepalum, and Paphiopedilum which not naturally distributed in Indonesia.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8QmitImFmZZbzdIY3pKVm4ySEU/edit?usp=sharing
Its the adult female trapped in flask, we're trying to breed them for bio-pesticide research. (Sorry for the backsound, my colleague just cant stop talking )

Frightening story... Which kind of bio pesticide will you try? Since the larva is a borer, what about something like Tree Azine

 

[NYEric]

Sounds horrendous!! I'm kind of scared to see the photos!!

 

[ALToronto]

What are the chances that some of these have hitched a ride to North America, in one of numerous shipments of asian orchids?

 

[lepetitmartien]

It depends ALToronto of the "quality" of the phyto treatments before shipping.

But sure it's an issue for any plant outside in vitro propagation is at risk and especially the adults, as the older they are the most chances (or bad lucks) they have met nasties, be it viruses or weevils. There's literature upon the growing % of infected plants over time in culture (see STAUG). I'm not at all a fanatic of chemistry, but the treatments before shipping are really mandatory, in closed, secured place where packing will take place.

One issue is that some vendors in SE Asia (not serious ones) are really not thinking about this as mandatory.

I will check in my books what could be used on the "soft" side for the rest of us. Anything that can bring defensive molecules precursors (like terpenes and the like) is good. Right now I'm testing on one infested phals one of my organic means to fight mealies (nettle manure -first fermentation extract that is). It brings terpenes precursors and the plants fights back my itself.

I guess that for tropical zones culture, something less unstable should be used, maybe essential oils. I'll get back on this.

 

[gonewild]

It has been in Hawaii since 1910 it seems.

 

[lepetitmartien]

For now it's not in Europe seemingly… (crossing fingers) but as we already have in some GH other pests like tropical cockroaches…

 

[lepetitmartien]

I've had a look into my books for organic means against weevils. It's not going very far, and it's for european weevils, of course.

- Carabs as auxiliaries, against adults.
- Tanacetum vulgare maceration or fermented extract ("manure", but first fermentation, not the rotten second one) are effective on female Ceuthorhynchus pleurostigma (a weevil boring into cabbages) laying eggs.

That's all I've found in my books…

Depending on the weevil species, there's nematods (palm weevil), fungi (vine weevil), that can be used. The trouble is to find the means that work.

 

[Erythrone]

I've had a look into my books for organic means against weevils. It's not going very far, and it's for european weevils, of course.

- Carabs as auxiliaries, against adults.
- Tanacetum vulgare maceration or fermented extract ("manure", but first fermentation, not the rotten second one) are effective on female Ceuthorhynchus pleurostigma (a weevil boring into cabbages) laying eggs.

That's all I've found in my books…

Depending on the weevil species, there's nematods (palm weevil), fungi (vine weevil), that can be used. The trouble is to find the means that work.

Intéressant!

I thought about nematodes too, because I used Nems several times for control of black vine weevils on pot plants. But to be efficient the nematodes must "swim in the water" of the soil. And the larva must be on the media, feeding on roots (that is what the ugly white worm of Black vine weevil do). If the larvae is a borer in pseudobulbs, I wonder how these nematodes can be useful:wink:

That is why I thought about Tree Azin, a "cousin" of Neem Oil with systemic properties. Active ingredient is azadirachtin

 

[lepetitmartien]

It all depends of the life cycle of the weevil. Specific nematodes are fine for some species that have the larvae in soil, it's not our case here.

I've just stumbled upon the thread on Orchidboard giving a mean against weevil eating leaves on citrus trees: something sticky ! They crawl then get stuck. That is something that can be useful here. :evil:

 

[lepetitmartien]

Menthol loaded essential oils may work as repellant.

 

[Erythrone]

It all depends of the life cycle of the weevil. Specific nematodes are fine for some species that have the larvae in soil, it's not our case here.

that's what I thought...

 

[ramadayapati]

Sorry, i was trying google drive and apparently it didnt work, so here's the pictures :

Early damaged, usually the dead tissues caused by the adults.

The crown is damaged by the larvae, as you can see in the shoot point.

Since Paph. doesnt have much edible tissues for the larvae, so you wont realize if your Paph. suffer from this borer and dying.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152199868548843&l=5885124675024105895
And yeah, they could fly and playing dead if threatened.

What i learn from the attack on Paphs as their host, usually a larvae wont reach maturity from one shoot because like i said before, limited edible tissue is available in one single shoot of Paph. Big clumps of Paph. will be a heaven for the larvae but less than three shoots in one clumps wouldnt let them to transform and mating. One single shoot will be done in a month, meanwhile it need four months from hatchlings to metamorph. So yeah please count

Beside my area is their natural habitat, i do cultivate some Dendrobiums which are their natural host. So its harder to cut the cycle. The parasite research is on progress, so far bacterial infection still works the best

 

[NYEric]

OK, no plants from Indonesia, thank you!

 

[ZWUM]

Yikes that is frightening! I'll second for the Papua pics if they exist!


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[abax]

I bet a systemic drench like 97% Orthene drench would put the horrible little
buggers down at specified intervals.

 

[ramadayapati]

Surprisingly, they barely attack the local species but mostly succulent type Paphs species and hybrid like in subgenus Brachypetalum, Parvisepalum, and Paphiopedilum which not naturally distributed in Indonesia.

OK, no plants from Indonesia, thank you!

Fortunately no, what i'm trying to say here, the local weevils adapt with some 'invader' new hosts. So far i had no problems with native species here.
Regards on their light requirements, i put most of the Brachys next to Dendrobiums, maybe that's how they migrate easily.

I bet a systemic drench like 97% Orthene drench would put the horrible little
buggers down at specified intervals.

It works on Paphs, but it didnt work for Dendrobium, meanwhile they're cultivated in the same location.

 

[ramadayapati]

I've had a look into my books for organic means against weevils. It's not going very far, and it's for european weevils, of course.

- Carabs as auxiliaries, against adults.
- Tanacetum vulgare maceration or fermented extract ("manure", but first fermentation, not the rotten second one) are effective on female Ceuthorhynchus pleurostigma (a weevil boring into cabbages) laying eggs.

That's all I've found in my books…

Depending on the weevil species, there's nematods (palm weevil), fungi (vine weevil), that can be used. The trouble is to find the means that work.

Thanks for knowledge, i've been working with palm fruit production and breeding as well especially in Salacca spp.. We've been concerning for the palm weevil attack lately. Do you know if there's any specific nematodes for them?

For the orchid weevil, Bacillus thuringiensis seems quite works for now but still hard to penetrate to the larvae from thick Dendrobium tissues

 

[ramadayapati]

Yikes that is frightening! I'll second for the Papua pics if they exist!

PLEASE tell me you have pics of West Papua plants in situ!!!

These photos wouldnt be relevant with the threads but please enjoy.
I only could found some photos from Biak Island and Waigeo Island, need to browse my harddisk and its gonna be a lot of work.

Vandopsis lissochiloides, growing on seashore's rocks, frequently splashed with salt water, Waigeo Island, Raja Ampat

Spathoglottis plicata, Waigeo Island, Raja Ampat.

Dendrobium lancifolium, Biak Island. Unlike the pendulous type from Sulawesi. All the specimens here are growing upright and pretty stiff.

Mangrove vegetation, Rhyzophora stylosa, host for Dendrobium antennatum (i cant find the picture thou )