Question
QUESTION: I live in South East Texas and we also sustained a terrible winter. I have 7 queen palms and of course, now they are all brown and dead looking. I have read that we need to be patient, which I have, but a few weeks ago 4 of my queens started oozing out a reddish substance from small pinhole type openings in the trunk. It literally looks like they are bleeding, and they have what looks like sawdust around their bases. I don't see any bugs on the outside of the trunk, but it almost looks like they are being eaten from the inside out. I was trying to hold on to the hope that my queens would survive, but when this started happening I began to wonder. I pulled the bark away from my smallest queen and found 15 or 20 slugs eating away at the trunk, but I don't think they are what caused the pinholes that are oozing. Any ideas of what this might be? Is it treatable or is this evidence that my queens are done for?

ANSWER: Hi Elaine, I can partially help you now, but I have sent an inquiry to my local Extension officer to get a clearer answer on it, and will ask that you send me a reminder on this in a couple of days (its Saturday and he is off, being a County employee, so he won't even see it until Monday..); Queens to indeed "bleed" it is caused by internal damage, ie; a lightening strike or insect borers, I suspect that they are being afflicted by these borers, and as I said, I will have a confirmation on it when the Agent gets back to me Monday or Tuesday. Nick...............................as promised Elaine, I am back with some feedback from two renowned palm experts, the extension officer here and the palm specialist from the University of Florida!......they both concurred that the primary cause of the damage is from the freeze, and the secondary damage is being done by a palm beetle (the pinholes that are oozing...), the slugs are insignificant and are of no concern, but the suggestion is that the palms will become very unstable from the boring beetles and the weakening from the freeze and will become a risk of coming down unexpectedly, possibly causing damage or harm to someone. The suggestion here is to have them removed, before this occurs....Nick

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Nick, Is there no treatment for the palm beetle?...Elaine

Answer
The Ambrosia Beetle usually infests a weak Palm, one that is already damaged and an  easy target; I know of no practical method of eradicating it. Even if you were able, I believe the consensus with the two experts I inquired with is that the damage is probably to extensive at this point, but without actually being there and seeing it, it is a tough call. Research "Ambrosia Beetle" and see if it would be practical, your guess would be as good as mine. I hope I have been able to assist you Elaine, maybe the "insect" expert on this site may be of further assistance. ........You are welcome Elaine, but take solace in the fact that even if they were able (by some miracle)...survive, they would be in such a weakened state come this Winter, they would surely succumb...Nick