THE COOL DOWN - Palm trees in Uruguay have been under attack by an invasive pest, causing death and destruction to more than thousands of the country's beloved trees, the Associated Press reported.
What's happening?
The red palm weevil, a large-snout beetle species native to Southeast Asia, has been wreaking havoc on palm trees within the country since its arrival in 2022.
According to the University of California, Riverside's Center for Invasive Species Research, the 2-inch bugs are usually attracted to unhealthy palm trees, which are easier to target. However, they will also attack healthy palms.
Red palm weevils find exposed wounds of pruned palm trees and will bore holes in them, creating tunnels and depositing hundreds of eggs in them, per the AP. When the larvae hatch, the young insects will eat through the tree's internal tissues, damaging and weakening the tree's trunk, causing the tree to be destroyed from within.