You've done the right thing by destroying the plant. People are always requesting plants from me in Hawaii, and I tell them of the risk of sending bunchy top, and you can see how easy it is.
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Originally Posted by blatta
Can plants survive with BBTV without showing symptoms?
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Yes they can. For most varieties, there is a latency period where the plants have the virus but do not show symptoms. This can range from a few weeks to several years depending on the variety and conditions. There are a few known varieties that can have the virus but never show symptoms, or show symptoms at very low rates, but they need some more testing. The varieties that are infected that do not show symptoms can still act a virus source for clean aphids to pick up the virus and spread it to clean plants.
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Originally Posted by blatta
-How long will I have to wait until I'm sure they're free?
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If the plants looks clean, and you imported them from a known BBTV infected region, such as India, you can't ever be too sure without some laboratory tests. The most important thing is to make sure that there are no Pentalonia aphids coming in on the plant. Even with a good cleaning, the aphids can easily sneak by as they can hide deep in the pseudostem sheaths.
I recommend that the pseudostems be cut below the crown to eliminate the petiole hiding places, and the outer two pseudostem sheaths be pulled back to the corm and removed, and then the whole plant sprayed down with a soapy water and alcohol solution. The aphids are the only way the virus can spread from plant to plant so if you eliminate them, and the plant has the virus, it cannot be spread to other plants.
The Banana aphids themselves are usually easy to ID among other common aphids. They are black with white stripes on their legs.
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Originally Posted by blatta
Also, does BBTV affect other species?
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Some studies are underway to determine if the virus can survive in non-banana plant hosts, but it has already been determined that the banana aphids almost exclusively feed on banana plants. Previously is was thought that they also feed on gingers, heliconia and taro, but it has been found that those aphids are actually a different, but very closely related species and they rarely feed on banana plants.