Hey folks! I have a problem I've never encountered on my trandescantia. She's developed brown spots that have shiny, gooey black blobs underneath. Those gloopy blobs are actually a vivid red/purple when smeared - I guess from the leaf pigment. The prime suspect is the little red critter I've circled in the pic - maybe a red aphid? Any ideas whether aphids would cause such damage, and how to fix the problem?

Hi LucieP, to the site!

The tiny black dots appear to be scale insects. My old eyes can't see the red critter so I'm not sure what that might be.
We have a couple of short articles in our Learning Library about plant pests, let me see if I can find them.

This is one has information about a few different houseplant pests, scroll down to find the information on scale.
https://garden.org/learn/artic...

This is another one regarding Scale Insects: https://garden.org/learn/artic...

Hi & welcome! I wonder if the little reddish bug is a thrip?

Whatever these things are, are they isolated to one stem? If so, I would trim that stem off. Then monitor to see if anything shows up on the rest of the plant.

Thanks so much all for the help :)

@plantladylin Yes, I see why the black dots could look like scale - but they were actually dark reddish/purplish goo that appears to have been secreted by whatever critter has been munching on the plant. Sadly I don't think that's the solution, but I'll check out the articles - thanks very much for looking them up! :)

@purpleinopp Good guess on the thrip, that's exactly the shape it was. But if it is a thrip it's not like one I've ever seen - it was a really bright red colour, and the damage also isn't what you'd expect from a thrip. It's a real mystery! As you suggested, I've removed the affected stem. So far I've not seen any other problem areas, but I need to do a more thorough check. Thanks for the suggestions!

Happy to reply. Best luck!