OREANDA-NEWS The palm weevil beetle has destroyed about a thousand palm trees, its breeding period will begin in March, said Svetlana Kalinina, first deputy head of the resort for economics and Finance.

Earlier, the mayor's office talked about planting new palm trees. According to Kalinina, the workers have already begun to prepare for this place.

"There is very little time left until March, the beginning of the palm weevil breeding season. Volunteers of the "Young Guard" together with the administration identified about 1 thousand palm trees that died from the pest. The weevil beetle feeds on leaves, but its larvae cause great harm because they live in trunks. One larva can eat an entire tree in a season. Since the end of January, the liquidation and crushing of dead palm trees has been actively started. To date, the work has been completed more than half. This will help prevent the active reproduction of the weevil," Kalinina wrote in her Telegram channel.

The official said that the city has signed a contract for six-stage processing of palm trees, but the authorities ask to be attentive to exotic plants and the residents of Sochi themselves. "We ask all residents, management companies, business entities to carry out this processing on time. At the first appearance of the pest, start treatment," Kalinina said.

The first signs of damage to palm trees, she notes, are the drying out of the "central socket", a change in the color of the leaves, their lowering, and breaking off of the palm trunk.

Earlier, Boris Tuniev, Deputy Director for Scientific Work at the Sochi National Park Federal State Budgetary Institution, told RIA Novosti that Sochi risks losing its palm trees within five years due to the high activity of the driller butterfly. The scientist noted that the process of death of these plants has been fixed at the resort for several years, and harmful butterflies live in almost all areas of the resort.