On the management of the date palm and its arthropod enemies in the Arabian Peninsula¹

Abstract

A view is given on observations made from 1976 till 1985 in some Arabian date palms groves on the interrelationships between the management and the arthropods injurious to the palms. There are often pests problems due to faulty management. Some species of arthropods are taken out as examples. The dangerousness of these pests can be substantially reduced by a better management, particularly using other control means than the conventional organic pesticides, as anti-feedants against Oryctes adults, and microbial pesticides against their grubs, -a combination of sex pheromones and chemosterilants against adults of the Lesser and Greater date fruit moths, -chemosterilants against the tetranychid mite, Oligonychusand other possible selective means of control.

Population dynamics ofOligonychus afrasiaticusin the southern Arava Valley of Israel in relation to date fruit characteristics and climatic conditions

“…The old world date mite, Oligonychus afrasiaticus (McGregor), is an important pest of date palms in most of North Africa [Mauritania (Coudin & Galvez, 1976), Algeria (Guessoum, 1986), Libya (Edongali et al ., 1988), Egypt (Saleh & Hosny, 1979)] and parts of Asia [Israel (Palevsky et al ., 2003, 2004), Iraq (Hussain, 1969), Saudi Arabia (Talhouk, 1991), Oman (Elwan, 2000) and Yemen (Ba & Bass, 2000)].…”

Abundance and Diversity of Mites Associated with Date Palm, Olive and Citrus Trees in Sakaka, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…They recorded the Tetranychidae with three species, Tenuipalpidae with four species, Phytoseiidae with twelve species and Tydeidae with nine species. The date palm mite Oligonychus afrasiaticus (McGregor) is a serious pest of date palm fruits in Saudi Arabia (Talhouk, 1991). It was recorded to infest date fruits in orchards in Dirab, Unayzah and Al Sulayell districts and spreads in Hail, Qassim, Riyadh, Al-Kharg and Dammam regions (Al-Shammery, 2008).…”

Relationship of Date Palm Tree Density to Dubas Bug Ommatissus lybicus Infestation in Omani Orchards

“…Ferguson et al [6] stated that 21-31% of the variation in insect population is due to crop density. Talhouk [7] reported that O. lybicus flourishes in places with dense cropping patterns due to low adverse abiotic stressors like temperature, wind and sunlight. In addition, high-density crops provided high humidity microclimates favorable for insects.…”