This was a surprise encounter on our morning walk: the prostrate form of a huge cactus. There's not been much wind to speak of; nothing seemed to have hit it; it's rather a prickly object to pull over on a whim. The answer seems to be (doing due diligence into sudden and dramatic cactus rot) - the agave snout weevil! Whoever knew that there was such a wonderfully named creature? Scyphophorus acupunctatus, to be more formal. They are like bigger versions of the insects that infected our honeysuckle plants in the summer: they have long probisci that they stick into the core of the plant, and then they lay their eggs there - and other micro-organisms get in there too - and that's likely to lead to the cactus's demise. What's more, they aren't native to California - they have arrived from Mexico, and are on the list of the world's top 100 invasive species. which is a pretty terrible distinction to have. It's also known as the sisal weevil because - guess what - it attacks sisal, too. One can attack it, apparently, with truly nasty pesticides in the surrounding soil, which probably do all kinds of other damage - but people are researching using pheromones to lure them away from cacti to what are euphemistically termed "collection sites." I suppose that's like baiting moth traps?
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