It is considered an important pest of cultivated coconut, date and oil palms, attacking thirty-five different species in twelve different families.

This insect serves as vector for the Bursaphelenchus cocophilus nematode[MP 1] — the cause of red ring disease in coconuts,[4] oilpalm, and dates.

[7] The weevil's native range extends across much of South America from Argentina to Paraguay and north through South and Central America to central Mexico and the Caribbean (Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and perhaps Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico).

[1] Recent finds in Arizona and Texas do not seem to reflect established populations, but more western populations are established (as of 2010) in Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego County, California (San Ysidro, Bonita, and Spring Valley) and causing serious damage.

[9] The larvae have been consumed for centuries as food by native South American populations as a source of protein, minerals, and vitamins A and E.[10] These beetles and their larvae are known by many common names in South America: cucarrón, cigarrón, casanga, suri (Peru), chontacuro (Ecuador), gualpa (Colombia), mojojoi, mojomoi, mojotoi, mukint, mujin.