The Councilor for Parks and Gardens, David Toledo, has responded to complaints about the mealybug plague in Titerroy trees in an interview on Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero.
"We have to know the context. In that same flowerbed there was a private plantation of exotic and traditional fruits. There were papayas, potatoes, peppers, onions, tomatoes... All in a small flowerbed where the trees are. We said that they had to remove it because it is forbidden to put private plantations in public flowerbeds and public garden areas and because there were many types of vegetation that were competing for minerals and water with the tree, which was at risk of getting sick. We removed that fruit to prevent the tree from getting sick. But it finally got sick," he says.
Toledo explains that what they are doing today is trying to cure it. "Every 15 days it is given a phytosanitary product to try to recover it, but the origin of the tree's disease, which in the end is mealybug, is nothing more than the fact that there were private plantations around the flowerbed."
Likewise, the Councilor for Parks and Gardens emphasizes that the mealybug "is not dangerous" and that "the technicians working in the company's department are seeing how the tree evolves."
Regarding the measure of felling the tree, Toledo points out that he does not rule it out if the current treatment to eradicate the plague does not work: "Trees are the heritage of the institutions and, in this case, of all the residents of Arrecife. If it could not be cured, another type of measure would have to be analyzed. But people, allow me to be a bit crude, when they are sick, we don't kill them," he concludes.