The Red Palm Mite has been creeping closer and closer to S Fla. Check out the following taken from the Florida DOACS. And yes, it does attack bananas and other trops:
Red palm mite Raoiella indica Hirst (Acari: Tenuipalpidae)
Cal Welbourn,
welbouc@doacs.state.fl.us, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry
INTRODUCTION : Red palm mite, Raoiella indica Hirst (Acari: Tenuipalpidae), is a pest of coconut, areca palm, and date palms in Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Mauritius, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Reunion, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, United Arab Emerits and is probably widespread in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. The first Western Hemisphere report of the red palm mite was in 2004 from the eastern Caribbean island of Martinique (Flechtmann and Etienne 2004, 2005). The mite was confirmed on the islands of Saint Lucia and Dominica in 2005 (Kane et. al., 2005). In 2006 the mite was reported as established in the Domincian Republic, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin and Trinidad-Tobago (Anonymous 2006, Etianne & Flechtmann 2006, Rodrigues et al. 2007). In 2007 the US Virgin Islands, Granada, Haiti and Jamaica have been added to the list of islands and countries infested with the red palm mite. Gutiérrez et al. (2007) recently reported the red palm mite from the state of Sucre in Venezuela, SA. In all instances, this mite has established itself on various palms (Arecaceae), with significant outbreaks on coconut palms, Cocos nucifera L. In addition, significant infestations have been observed on banana and plantain species (Musa spp., Musaceae) on most islands with additional infestations observed on heliconias (Heliconiaceae), gingers (Zingiberaceae), bird of paradise (Strelitziaceae) and screw pine (Pandanaceae) (Table 1). The explosive appearance of the red palm mite in the Caribbean Region is a serious pest risk for the subtropical areas of the United States, tropical Central and South America and the entire Caribbean Region.
