Rhinoceros beetle: Oryctes rhinoceros
Symptom of damage:

• Central spindle appears cut or toppled
• Fully opened fronds showing characteristic diamond shaped cuttings
• Holes with chewed fibre sticking out at the base of central spindle

Identification of the pest:

• Egg : oval creamy white egg in manure pits or decaying  vegetable matter
• Grub: Grub is stout, sluggish, white “C”-shaped and pale brown head
• Pupa : Grub pupates in earthern cells at a depth of 0.3 to 1 m
• Adult: Adult beetle is stout, brownish black or black and has a long horn in male.
• Horn is short in female.

Management:

• Remove and burn all dead palmyrah trees in the garden
• Collect and destroy the various bio-stages of the beetle from the manure pits
• Incorporate the entomopathogen fungus Metarrhizium anisopliae in manure pits
• Soak castor cake at 1 kg in 5 l of water in small mud pots and keep them gardens to attract and kill the adults
• Examine the crowns of tree at every harvest and hook out and kill the adults.
• For seedlings, apply 3 naphthalene balls/palm weighing 3.5 g each at the base leaf sheath.
• Set up light traps to attract and kill the adult beetles.
• Field release of Baculovirus inoculated adult rhinoceros beetle @ 15/ha
• Apply mixture of either neem seed powder + sand (1:2) @150 g per palm
• or neem seed kernel powder + sand (1:2) @150 g per palm
• Set up rhinolure pheromone trap @ 2 /ha to trap and kill the beetles.