Bugs Lose Their Stick as El Nino Dries Out Palm Oil Plantations
- Dry weather in Malaysia makes it harder for pollinating bugs
- Growers started using weevils in 1980s to boost plant yields
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Take almost any package off a supermarket shelf and there’s a good chance a weevil helped make what’s inside. That’s because the African oil palm weevil is a key pollinator of the fruit that yields palm oil, an ingredient in everything from chocolate to pizza as well as shampoo and lipstick.