Panic over the red devils threatening to strip Tunisia of its grand palm trees

A red palm weevil infestation is decimating trees and posing a threat to the country's date crop, a mainstay of the fragile economy

It's an unlikely but very real crisis for a country with a teetering economy: a tiny red devil is invading Tunisia and it could cost hundreds of thousands of people their livelihoods.

Morched Garbouj, president of a Tunisian environmental group, smiled as he told the popular legend of how the red palm weevil first arrived in Tunisia. "Some people say that it was the former dictator Ben Ali's son-in-law who brought it here. He was known for bringing in exotic animals, exotic trees, that kind of thing." He points to the fact that the area suffering the greatest devastation is in Carthage, around the presidential palace. "Well, maybe it's true!"