The Banana Weevil is a beetle that is between 8 to 12 mm long and a dark brown/grey black including a red tint with a hook like nose. They are mainly nocturnal animals, resting in-between the leaf on the floor and pseudostem (a pseudostem is a false stem made up of concentric rolled or folded blades and sheaths that surrounds the growing point)  of there host or there debris of there production. They almost never fly and prefer to walk and spreading especially the transfer of infected material. Unlike a lot of animals they can survive several months without food.

Banana weevil is an important pest of banana and plantain, and sensate. Weevil problems appear to be most harsh in plantains, raised ground cooking bananas and sensate. The weevil has contributed to the reject and disappearance of highland cooking banana in areas of East Africa. Weevil pest status in other groups of bananas is unpredictable. In Cavendish plantations, the banana weevil has been reported to be relatively unimportant.

Banana Weevils live in banana farm where they are closely connected with there host plant. They live in parts of East Africa and parts of the West Indies. The banana weevil Cosmopolites Sordidus is the gravest pest of banana and plantain in most manufacture areas, including the West Indies. During a time of 24 months (two years), humans assessed the effectiveness of a pheromone mass-trapping manage plan of C. Sordidus in field circumstances in Guadeloupe at different cropping stages, both in sanitation fallows and in different ration banana crops.

 

In the fallows, catches peaked three months after launching, trapping and then decreased to zero after nine months. By distinguish, for the new plantations, the catches of C. Sordidus increased after the 11th month and, in the older banana fields, there was no decrease in C. Sordidus catches. The C. Sordidus catches increased in the neighboring banana plots, whereas they decreased in the fallows, and these catches decreased with the distance from fallow.

 

In conclusion, mass trapping with synergized pheromone traps within fallows should allow better sanitation of banana plantations. Yet, within the farms, fallows must not be located next to new plantations to avoid massive damage to the young plants. More generally, the present study emphasizes that the control of this insect should be managed at the farm scale and not at the field scale, with special attention being paid to the location of fallows. I believe there population is shrinking an banana farmers are extremely happy.

Simple methods for production of all life stages of the banana weevil on its natural diet, banana rhizome and pseudostem are presented. Their effectiveness, labour demands and applicability for different purposes are discussed. The most effective method for the production of eggs, pupae and adults is the utilization of the rhizome part of suckers, whereas larvae are easier to recover from pseudostem. The hatchability of the eggs produced is high. One of its main predators is the big headed ant; they eat the larva, egg, pupae and grubs of the banana weevil. Them, being only so young can’t really protect themselves from he vast army of ants.

In conclusion, C. Sordidus is a beetle like animal that lives in banana farms and feeds of its host plant. They are very damaging to the plants and aren’t very good for sales. Farmers and such are finding new ways to get rid of this pest to there crops in effort to protect them. They are not widely liked and are found annoying paresites ruining banana crops.

Author: Hope V.
Date published: 1/13

Sources:http://www.infonet-biovision.org/default/ct/96/pests ; http://entemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/fruit/borers/banana_root_borer.htm ; http://www.es.wikipedea.org/wiki/Cosmopolites_sordidus ; http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov?pubmed/1799781 ; http://www.medeley.com/research/effect-fallows-population-dynamics-cosmopolites-sordidus-toward-integrated-management-banana-feilds-pheremone-mass-trapping/

Photo credit: http://www.ces.csiro.au/aicn/images/cain1346.jpg