Red Palm Weevil Monitoring

Protect your date plantation from Red Palm Weevil (RPW)

Red Palm Weevil (R. ferrugineus) is a rapidly growing problem in date palm, causing millions of dollars of economic loss each year and endangering the livelihood of 50 million farmers (FAO).

Farm owners and public body officials have told us that RPW is present everywhere, and a key challenge for them is to identify high activity hot spots. They believe that existing trapping mechanisms and manual tree inspections are not fit for purpose. 

An early warning system for RPW

• Internet activated dry traps attract RPW and transmit information wirelessly
• Managers see real time RPW activity on their phone and laptop
• Labour and farmers receive automatic instructions
• They go straight to the most impacted parts of the farms to do treatments
• Decision makers track the progress of the control program in real time
• Low response time to RPW activity prevents damage

Benefits of Spotta’s digital solution

• Control RPW spread
• Prevent tree death
• Increase date production & quality
• Grow value of exports
• Manage contractor performance

Tested & verified in the Middle East

The system was subjected to rigorous testing in randomised block design trials in date farms. Despite being very low service, Spotta provided equivalent or slightly better trapping compared to the high maintenance traditional wet bucket traps used today.