Experts are monitoring the health of Bahrain's 600,000 palm trees, which are under threat from the dreaded red palm weevil.

The insect is said to have killed more than 1,000 palm trees last year alone.

Indigenous to Southeast Asia, the pest made its way to Bahrain in the early 1990s through contaminated offshoots. It now affects all cultivars of date palms in Bahrain and is most threatening in its larvae and adult stages, entering tree trunks through the underside of leaves or freshly cut areas and feeding on plant tissue.

Plant Wealth Protection Directorate head Dr Abdulaziz Abdulkareem said the very presence of weevils threatened one of Bahrain's national symbols.

'The palm tree has an important place in our hearts,' he said.

'It is a symbol for many things - culturally, socially, environmentally and religiously - it is a holy tree.

'Because of its position, people look at it in a special way and they like to take care of it.

'It is the dominant plant in our agricultural ecosystem and we must pay special attention to this (weevil) insect and its relation to the date palm.'

Palm trees have an important place in the history of Bahrain, which was once known as Umm Al Million Nakhla (mother of a million palm trees) because there were so many.

However, urbanisation and other factors have seen the number of Bahrain's date palms drop to around 600,000.

Dr Abdulkareem said the Municipalities and Agriculture Ministry had made it a priority to inspect every tree to make sure any weevil infestations were quickly contained.

'If we ignore them for a moment, we can have an outbreak,' he explained.

'Once we have an outbreak it will be very difficult to control. We have to have frequent checks on all date palms in Bahrain.

'We try to inspect every tree. It is a continuous, year-long process. Last year, we inspected 420,000 trees, 500 of which were treated and about a 1,000 eliminated.

'Some farms can suffer losses up to 40 to 60 per cent. These are big losses with significant economic and environmental costs.

'If we lose the palm trees, what else do we have? Then there is no agriculture in Bahrain.

'We cannot afford to ignore one infested tree because the consequences will be severe, so we keep our eyes open through the monitoring programmes and the limited resources that we have.

'Obviously with more professionals, more equipment and advanced technology we can have a better control strategy.'

Poor management, poor irrigation and fertilisation and improper pruning are the primary culprits behind large infestations, added Dr Abdulkareem.

'It (the weevil) is an invasive species,' he said.

'We think of it as a hidden pest because you don't see the symptoms until the damage is done.

'Any date palm can get infested, even the ones that people grow in their homes.'

He said while each tree had to be individually inspected, the process was done efficiently and smoothly by a team of 'tree doctors'.

'It takes about five to seven minutes for a trained eye to inspect each tree,' he explained.

'We look for symptoms like holes or sap as a result of injury and, depending on the degree of infestation, we resort to treatment or elimination. If more than 30pc of the tree is lost, there's not much we can do to save it.

'Right now we dispose of the eliminated trees by burning or burying. We keep burning to a minimum because it can bother people, but cutting and burying a tree can also invite termites - which is a problem in itself.'

However, Dr Abdulkareem revealed the ministry was now looking at more environmentally safe treatment and disposal of palm trees that fall victim to weevils.

'There is a proposal to introd