I've been googling all afternoon and I can't seem to identify these black spots that I've just found on the underside of our Bird of Paradise.
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I hope the image links work ... this is my first attempt at using photobucket.
I found this huge clump on a dead leaf that I pulled off and I can now see that there is also a lesser amount on some of the healthy leaves. As you can see from the photos there is also a sticky residue along with the raised, hard black to brown spots. We also saw some tiny white ant like insects crawling up the leaf in a group but we can't see them anymore (we're freaking out that these could have been termites??) I was hoping the white insects may have been aphids but the google images don't really look quite the same and I can't find any cross reference to aphids and our black spots.
I hope someone can help, we are trying to re-establish our garden after building an extension and we seem to be having constant problems with pests. We have successfully identified and are trying to eradicate mealybugs on our Alphonse Karr bamboo (and cryptolaemus which we were thrilled to work out are good bugs and now very welcome). We have also been absolutely swamped by whitefly which we tried to treat with garlic spray and are now spraying with Eco-Oil. This particular Bird of Paradise is seperated from our garden plants as it is kept in an atrium which is in the centre of our house but is open to the elements ie. it doesn't have a roof. I've checked our other garden Strelitzias and they seem to be free of this problem.
Any advice or reassurance would be appreciated