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E.-S. E. Omran
plants and minerals that can significantly aid in controlling RPW. Also, it is safe to
use on all plants and crops including natives.
Keywords Pest detection · Acoustic signal · Wireless sensor networks · Red palm
weevil · Arab countries
1 Introduction
Date palm, Phoenix dactylifera L. (Arecaceae), is one of the earliest plants that
had been cultivated for its fruit for at least 5000 years BC [1] and most important
fruit trees cultivated in the Middle East and North Africa including Egypt [2]. One
of the major threats to dactylifera over the world is the red palm weevil (RPW),
Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier), (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) [3]. RPW is an
economically important invasive tissue borer that has a broad host range restricted
to palm trees, mostly young trees less than 20 years old [4, 5]. Climate change will
profoundly affect the distribution and abundance of all species, including insects,
and promote ecology-driven changes in phenology [6]. Climate change may result
in a potential expansion of insect populations to polar regions and higher elevations
[7]. Increases in global temperatures will expand or reduce the range of insects by
converting climatically unsuitable habitats into suitable ones or vice versa [8]. Red
palm weevil is ‘global threat’ after spreading to 60 countries. Therefore, identifying
the potential distribution of R. ferrugineus under different global warming scenarios is crucial if we are to develop effective prevention and control measures. The
integrated pest management strategy has been applied successfully to deal with the
RPW problem [9, 4, 10]. The duration of all life cycle parameters varies significantly
[5], which takes about 45–298 days. Several overlapping generations may also be
seen inside the infested palm [4]. RPWs are considered to be the most serious blight,
which threatens millions of palm trees in the Gulf region and the whole world.
Early detection and control timing of the RPW is an important topic to avoid the
extensive damage to palm trees, as well as the emergence and migration of adult
weevils [4]. The early prediction of insect pests helps the farmers to avoid heavy
sprays of pesticides and take the necessary actions to restrict dangerous infestations
[11]. Early warning of this pest may represent the only way to set up efficient actions
to fight the coleopteron in trees where it takes over, thus limiting it’s spreading
in contiguous palms. Different technologies have been applied to detect the initial
stages of RPW pest infestation [12]. Smell detection of infestation by Dogs (Golden
Retriever) could be taught to recognize the chemical signatures produced by plant
feeding stages [13]. These dogs detect the smell of the ooze that exudes from RPW
infested date palm trees. Also, the gas sensor is one of this approach to detect the smell
of some volatiles, generated during the fermentation processes in the infested palms
[13]. “Anyway, gas sensors are not very selective and their response is influenced by
many other volatiles” [14].
E.-S. E. Omran
plants and minerals that can significantly aid in controlling RPW. Also, it is safe to
use on all plants and crops including natives.
Keywords Pest detection · Acoustic signal · Wireless sensor networks · Red palm
weevil · Arab countries
1 Introduction
Date palm, Phoenix dactylifera L. (Arecaceae), is one of the earliest plants that
had been cultivated for its fruit for at least 5000 years BC [1] and most important
fruit trees cultivated in the Middle East and North Africa including Egypt [2]. One
of the major threats to dactylifera over the world is the red palm weevil (RPW),
Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier), (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) [3]. RPW is an
economically important invasive tissue borer that has a broad host range restricted
to palm trees, mostly young trees less than 20 years old [4, 5]. Climate change will
profoundly affect the distribution and abundance of all species, including insects,
and promote ecology-driven changes in phenology [6]. Climate change may result
in a potential expansion of insect populations to polar regions and higher elevations
[7]. Increases in global temperatures will expand or reduce the range of insects by
converting climatically unsuitable habitats into suitable ones or vice versa [8]. Red
palm weevil is ‘global threat’ after spreading to 60 countries. Therefore, identifying
the potential distribution of R. ferrugineus under different global warming scenarios is crucial if we are to develop effective prevention and control measures. The
integrated pest management strategy has been applied successfully to deal with the
RPW problem [9, 4, 10]. The duration of all life cycle parameters varies significantly
[5], which takes about 45–298 days. Several overlapping generations may also be
seen inside the infested palm [4]. RPWs are considered to be the most serious blight,
which threatens millions of palm trees in the Gulf region and the whole world.
Early detection and control timing of the RPW is an important topic to avoid the
extensive damage to palm trees, as well as the emergence and migration of adult
weevils [4]. The early prediction of insect pests helps the farmers to avoid heavy
sprays of pesticides and take the necessary actions to restrict dangerous infestations
[11]. Early warning of this pest may represent the only way to set up efficient actions
to fight the coleopteron in trees where it takes over, thus limiting it’s spreading
in contiguous palms. Different technologies have been applied to detect the initial
stages of RPW pest infestation [12]. Smell detection of infestation by Dogs (Golden
Retriever) could be taught to recognize the chemical signatures produced by plant
feeding stages [13]. These dogs detect the smell of the ooze that exudes from RPW
infested date palm trees. Also, the gas sensor is one of this approach to detect the smell
of some volatiles, generated during the fermentation processes in the infested palms
[13]. “Anyway, gas sensors are not very selective and their response is influenced by
many other volatiles” [14].