Minerals in surface environments form in both turbulent and non-turbulent systems. This study compares the properties of Al goethite formed from ferrihydrite at 60°C in 0.3 M KOH with and without mechanical stirring. Compared to the static system, stirring increased crystal order and needle thickness, decreased unit cell edge length a, but not b and c, reduced the separation between the 2 OH-bending vibrations, increased Al substitution and promoted hematite formation.

The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier), is one of the most destructive pests of date palm in United Arab Emirates. We conducted field trials in Abu Dhabi from May 2010 to April 2011, to evaluate the effect of weekly stirring of water and dates in the RPW pheromone trap on adults captured in brown and white traps, using a randomized complete block design with four treatments and five replications. Each trap contained: (1) a dispenser of the RPW male aggregation pheromone (Ferrolure™) containing 700 mg of the active ingredient (4-methyl-5-nonanol (90%) + 4-methyl-5-nonanone (10%)) at 95% purity; (2) an ethyl acetate (EA) dispenser (Weevil Magnet™) containing 40 ml of the active ingredient of EA at 98% purity; (3) 350 g of fodder date fruits; and (4) 4 L of water. Mean adults captured in white traps was 22.5 ± 0.50 and 16.8 ± 0.41 adults/trap/month with and without stirring, respectively, while in brown traps the mean was 39.9 ± 1.31 and 28.3 ± 0.51, respectively. The overall mean of adults captured was 31.2 ± 6.21 and 22.6 ± 4.81 adults/trap/month with and without stirring, respectively. The highest number of weevils caught was in the brown traps with stirring, while the lowest was in the white traps without stirring. The results of these trials suggest the use of brown traps containing aggregation pheromone, 350 g of date fruits, EA and water. It is necessary to stir the water with dates in the traps to increase their efficacy.