Assessment of Risks and Potential of Injection Techniques in Integrated Programs to Eradicate the Red Palm Weevil: Review and New Perspectives
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Review Assessment of risks and potential of injection techniques in integrated programs to eradicate the red palm weevil: review and new perspectives Michel FERRY*, Susi GOMEZ INRA, Estación Phoenix, Assessment of risks and potential of injection techniques in integrated programs to Apartado 996, 03201 Elche, eradicate the red palm weevil: review and new perspectives. Spain, Abstract – Introduction. Plants develop mechanisms that allow them to compartmentalize injuries [email protected] that they suffer during their life. In trees, pruning and injection treatments must be used in accordance with precise rules to reduce risks resulting from the injuries created. Sealing in palms. Palms, con- trary to widespread belief, are quite capable of “healing” injuries (sealing); because of an anatomy quite different from trees, the sealing process in palms is much simpler. Compartmentalization of injection wounds. The controversy on the use of injection in trees is due essentially to initial mis- takes that have then been rectified. Injection in palms against the red palm weevil. For palms, for decades, this technique has been employed without problems and with great efficiency against various pests, including Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, the red palm weevil (RPW). Its use has been reserved for exceptional situations either to face abnormal pest proliferation, uncontrollable by other techniques, or to implement eradication programs. Integrated eradication program. In such a pro- gram, the main aim of injection treatments is preventive. With long-persistence insecticides, the number of treatments could be greatly reduced. The resulting savings in time and money would ena- ble the organization of the treatments of all the palms located in an infested area, and consequently the rapid eradication of the pest. New perspectives. We established that insecticides applied by injection were capable of protecting palms with only two or even one treatment per year. These results suggest a radical improvement in programs to eradicate RPW, while considerably reducing the risks to health and the environment compared with spray treatments. Spain / Arecaceae / plant anatomy / integrated pest management / Rhynchophorus ferrugineus / invasive species / tree injection / insecticides / lesions / healing / pesticide persistence / chemoprophylaxis / pest eradication Évaluation des risques et intérêt des techniques d’injection dans des programmes intégrés visant à éradiquer le charançon rouge du palmier : bilan et nouvelles perspectives. Résumé – Introduction. Les plantes sont dotées de mécanismes qui leur permettent de comparti- menter les blessures qu’elles subissent au cours de leur vie. Chez les arbres, l’élagage comme les trai- tements par injection doivent être utilisés en respectant des règles précises pour réduire les risques provoqués par les blessures créées. Scellement chez les palmiers. Contrairement à un cliché très répandu, les palmiers sont tout à fait capables de « cicatriser » leurs blessures (« scellement »). En rai- son d’une anatomie très différente des arbres, les processus de scellement sont beaucoup plus simples. Compartimentage de blessures d’injection. La polémique scientifique sur l’usage de l’injection chez les arbres résulte essentiellement d’erreurs initiales qui ont été ensuite corrigées. L’injection chez les palmiers contre le charançon rouge. Chez les palmiers, depuis des dizaines d’années, cette technique est utilisée sans problème et avec une grande efficacité contre divers rava- geurs, dont le charançon rouge des palmiers (CRP). Son utilisation a été limitée à des situations * Correspondence and reprints exceptionnelles soit pour faire face à la pullulation anormale d’un ravageur, soit dans le cadre de programmes d’éradication. Programme intégré d’éradication. Dans la mise en œuvre d’un tel programme, le principal intérêt de traitements par injection est préventif. Avec des insecticides à lon- Received 7 May 2013 gue persistance, le nombre des traitements pourrait être considérablement réduit. L’économie qui en Accepted 4 September 2013 résulterait en temps et argent permettrait d’organiser le traitement de tous les palmiers situés en zones infestées et, en conséquence, d’éradiquer rapidement le ravageur. Nouvelles perspectives. Nous avons établi que des insecticides appliqués par injection étaient capables de protéger les pal- miers avec seulement deux ou même un seul traitement par an. Ces résultats permettent d’envisager Fruits, 2014, vol. 69, p. 143–157 un changement radical dans la mise en œuvre de programmes intégrés d’éradication du CRP, tout © 2014 Cirad/EDP Sciences en réduisant considérablement les risques pour la santé et l’environnement en comparaison avec les traitements par pulvérisation. All rights reserved DOI: 10.1051/fruits/2014005 Espagne / Arecaceae / anatomie végétale / gestion intégrée des ravageurs / www.fruits-journal.org Rhynchophorus ferrugineus / espèce envahissante / injection d'arbres / insecticide / lésion / guérison / persistance des pesticides / chimioprévention / éradication des RESUMEN ESPAÑOL,p.157 parasites Article published by EDP Sciences Fruits, vol. 69 (2) 143 M. Ferry and S. Gomez 1. Introduction of wounds would constitute such a serious evolutionary disadvantage that it would not The injection of various substances into have allowed the sustainable emergence of trees has been implemented at least as far perennial species [3, 35–38]. It is thanks to back as the Middle Ages [1]. Its use for plant this natural capacity that pruning, often health dates to the middle of the twentieth much more aggressive than injection, con- century and expanded in the 1970s with the stitutes a current practice in arboriculture. apparition of the first systemic pesticides. Applied improperly, pruning and injection From that period, numerous studies on the can lead to an injury that compartmentalizes treatment of trees by injection have been badly, with the development of decay more realized, especially by North American or less deep within the tree [3, 39–45]. This researchers, who have published an abun- potential risk must not be underestimated dant literature. This literature was published but, of course, it has not led to the aban- in parallel with several fundamental papers donment or the interdiction of pruning. The on the anatomical and health consequences potential and even the necessity of pruning of injuries on trees and, especially, on the evidently justify taking this risk. To eliminate description and conceptualization of “heal- or minimize it, precise standards and prac- ing” mechanisms [2–16]. tices have been elaborated. In fact, strictly speaking, plants do not It is with the same rational approach that heal. They do not regenerate injured tissues injection must be viewed. The use of this as in the animal world: the wounded cell technique is only justified if the advantages tissues are not replaced. The cells periph- outweigh the disadvantages. In our view, eral to the injured zone react to create bar- much of the controversy on the use of this riers, isolating the healthy area from the technique has originated from dogmatic outside. For trees, this process was de- points of view and not from an objective scribed by Shigo and called “compartmen- assessment based on advantage/disadvan- talization” [17]. For palms, he used the word tage analysis. “sealing” [18]. It is this term that we have de- Contrary to widespread belief, palms cided to use in this paper. “heal” or, to be more exact, seal wounds. In trees, the natural mechanisms of com- They seal them even more safely than trees partmentalization occur regardless of the do. Palms in this paper refer to the main origin of the injury: species affected by the red palm weevil (RPW). The absence of a cambium in palms – boring of the tree bark by pests [19–21], has unfortunately led various authors to – trunk and branch breaks after storms [22], erroneously assert the impossibility of palms – fires [23], “healing” wounds [46–49]. This position has been listed by Shigo among the 100 myths – pruning: it is especially in this domain that on trees whose erroneous character he was numerous observations have been made anxious to point out [50]. [24–27], An essential aspect in the compartmen- – holes drilled into the bark for sap extrac- talization or healing processes of an injury tion of various species; for example, in is the protection of the non-injured cell tis- maple [28]. sues from the outside environment, espe- Similar mechanisms of compartmentali- cially to prevent evaporative stress and the zation also take place after the injection of introduction and development of microor- pesticides [4, 6, 14, 29–34]. ganisms. Palms, of course, have this capac- ity; otherwise, they would have probably The compartmentalization of injuries pre- never emerged in the vegetal world. vents the introduction and progression of microorganisms and, in the case of trees, For palms, the model of plant compart- enables the reconstitution of the continuity mentalization called CODIT elaborated by of the secondary meristems. The absence of Shigo and Marx is not directly applicable [4]. this natural compartmentalization capacity This model is based on the existence of 144 Fruits, vol. 69 (2) Injection techniques to eradicate the red palm weevil tissues (yearly rings, medullar rays) and on the non-wounded cambium and phellogen, the development of a callus that covers the is imperative because of the indefinite diam- wound. Such tissues and development do eter growth