If your palms look wilted, off-color and are dying, check for conks (shelf-fungus) at the base of the trunk.

The conks are the give-away clue that it has ganoderma butt rot disease. It is frequently found on queen palms, areca palms, Canary Island Date palms and all other palms to a certain degree. There is no cure. Note the two Canary Island Date palms in the small blog picture. The palm on the left is healthy, but the one on the right has died to this disease. If the blog picture were larger, one could see the ganoderma conk at the base of the dead palm.
Sanitation is the key!

and this 5 page fact sheet by Drs. Elliott and Broschat:

Also see Stephen Brown’s video (UF|IFAS Lee Co.) showing devastating affects of ganoderma disease to an areca palm hedge.

2