Palm Tree Trivia You May NOT Want to Know!

Palm trees are so elegant...

I never gave much thought to pests that might inhabit them... But I do now!

A few days before I visited Palm Springs, a friend happened to be in Los Angeles during a fierce wind storm.

The winds were so strong, she later told me, that all the cockroaches were blown out of the palm trees! It was strange seeing so many cockroaches running around on the sidewalks after the storm. 

It did made me more wary of walking under palm trees!

I mentioned my friend's experience to a woman whose sister lives in southern California. She commented:
Cockroaches aren't the only pests living in palm trees. The blanket of dead fronds hanging down can also house rats... which is why people keep these dead branches trimmed.

(I wonder if the storm blew any rats out of their comfy nests as well!)