crisscross

Hey guys

New to this place. I noticed quite a few red bugs on my banana plants and am trying to figure out what I can do to get rid of them. I think they might be spider mites going by the discussions here but if you guys can confirm that would be great!
Banana Gallery - crisscross Gallery
Cheers

ChuckT

photo is not close enough or clear enough to easily identify the critters but spider mite almost always have webbing associated with them and tend not to do well in humid environments, there are quite a few species of aphid that come in a variety of colors, my best guess would be aphids, they can be hosed off or Safers soap does them in fairly well

just love these silly banana things

MurCurY

my guess would be aphid too...

Jabatan Pertanian Sarawak

tell tale sign of aphid is if you look at their rear end closely..maybe with hand lens...they have a spike coming off either side of their anus.

Yug

Looks like scale to me. If it is, those brown things are protecting covers for mature females (that are probably getting to hatch even more of them...) while they suck the juices (and the life) out of your nanner. Also, if it is scale, you gotta scrape those things off, and you can kill the young 'crawlers' with ordinary bug spray before they make their own little covers. Once they get under these waxy covers, I don't think anything other than a systemic bug killer will do. A systemic is absorbed by the plant, and permeates its circulatory system; a topical is just for the surface critters.

Kostas

Seems scale to me too but the photos do not allow any definite ID of it as they arent clear enough. The bugs are large though and not too many so its easy to mechanically remove them(a fingernail easily flips the cover of scales and you can then squeeze and remove whatever is below the cover). If you take a close look on the newer leafs every few days,you can eradicate them with just mechanically removing them as soon as you see them,if they are scale. Aphids may need some Neem oil spraying or soapy water to get rid of them completely as they hide in leaf bases as well and can easily spread to other plants.

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Planter56

From the looks of things, they look like aphids. Scale insects are flat, hard shelled and are brown or gray in color. Just wash them off with a good spray of water. Scales are usually found undernearth leaves and along stems. Since these are on top of the leaf I am more inclined toward aphids.

Nicolas Naranja

Those actually look like mealybugs, they can be killed with an agricultural soap or horticultural oil. I look at bugs all day, and that was my first thought at seeing it.

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