Recent methods and technologies for an early detection of red palm weevil infestation: A review

Abstract

The Red Palm Weevil (RPW) (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus ) is one of the most destructive pests in the world for the palm plantation as it can damage the entire plant and incur a total loss to the planters. The early detection of the RPW is difficult and when the symptoms of infestation was discovered, usually the plant is not salvageable. The adult RPW lays the eggs inside the trunk of the tree and starts feeding on the tissue of the plant, and remain inside it until the tree dies. Intensive efforts have been explored to enhance the early detection process of RPW in the field. There are numerous detection methods for discovering the infected trees such as manual visual inspection, acoustic detection, chemical odour/signal detection by using sneezing dogs, thermal sensing, remote sensing, GIS mapping, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud platform, and data mining-based technology. In this article, we explore and discuss the recent methods and technologies used for the early detection of RPW.