the virus does not replicate within the aphid’s midgut. Acquisition of the virus by the banana aphid requires about 18 hours of feeding and then the aphid can retain the virus for approximately two weeks. The retransmission of this virus can happen after as little as two hours of feeding on a healthy plant however it takes about a month for the BBTV symptoms to appear after infection. To infect, the carrier aphid can feed on the banana plant for as few as 15 minutes, but more often a couple hours, as the longer feeding time will increase the odds of transmission. The suckers produced on infected plants that would usually be used for planting the next season will also be diseased, which is one way the disease can spread from year to year. Banana aphids also have the capability to feed on Heliconia and flowering ginger; however, these alternate hosts of the aphid vector are not hosts of the virus. The ability of banana aphids to feed on alternate hosts is important to keep in mind when attempting to control the virus. Management There are no resistant varieties of banana against BBTV, so the most common method of control is chemical control of the aphid vectors. Another way to help control the virus is to remove and destroy any infected plants before the virus can spread, which is a practice known as roguing. Quarantines are also implemented to prevent the import of any potentially infected plant materials, including one in Hawaii that prevents the movement of anything except fruits from the island of Oahu to any other island, since BBTV is widespread in Oahu. Fruit is not often produced on infected plants, but if it is, the fruit will be deformed, which easily identifies if there is any virus present in the fruits to comply with quarantine regulations. Since bananas are not the only host, the alternate hosts for both the virus and the aphid must also be monitored for disease, and sprayed with pesticides to control the aphids more. When planting at the beginning of the season, the seed material or suckers should be obtained from BBTV free areas of the world or from cultures that are grown and developed to be free of the virus. Currently, there is ongoing research into biopriming, or inducing systemic resistance by using bacteria that live inside the host but do not