Banana weevil
The banana weevil is a shiny black or dark brown beetle with a long snout. It has little hooks on its legs to cling to plants. Its larvae dig tunnels inside banana plants, which makes it the worst insect pest of bananas.
How big is it?
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Fun facts
It probably came from Southeast Asia and Indonesia, and travelled the world hidden inside banana roots.
Its whole life, from egg to grown-up, takes only 30 to 40 days.
It finds banana plants by smell, especially plants that are already damaged.
Grown-ups come out at night and are poor flyers.
Its larva is plump and white with a reddish-brown head.
Most asked questions about Banana weevil
?Is the banana weevil harmful?
It is harmless to people, but it is a big pest for banana farmers.
?What does the banana weevil eat?
Banana plants. Its larvae dig tunnels in the stems and roots.
?How big is a banana weevil?
About 11 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cosmopolites sordidus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Curculionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Curculionidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania, South America, North America
- Also known as
- Banana root borer, Banana borer
Where the facts come from
- Cosmopolites sordidus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Plant pests and diseases. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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