Rolled? Curled? Leaves w Spider Visitor

[desertgal]

My new phal has 2 leaves that are curling. Maybe rolling is a better description, they are rolling lenghwise like you would roll a sheet of paper. When I watered it for the first time a tiny spider popped out. It had a round yellow body and long legs. It is not sitting with my other orchids at this time. Is the spider a common pest for orchids? I just saw the one. Perhaps it just hitched a ride from the grower. I used a magnifying glass but did not find anymore. The plant is full of bloom and buds and the other leaves are healthy.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

If you can see the body and legs, this is a benign spider. There is a spider mite that is very damaging to orchids, but it is so small that you need a good microscope to see the body and legs. They are mites, not spiders, but they produce extremely fine webs, and these webs help us to know they are there. I once saw some very fine webs and went looking for mites under a microscope. After a little searching, I found a very small spider and assumed he had made the webs. But, while I was at it, I thought I would look a little more, just to be certain. Well, I did find spider mites before I finished looking, and then realized that the spider was there because of the ready food supply of spider mites!

Now, how to check for mites.

Look for supper fine webs. Use a little mist to make the webs visable by leaving tiny drops of water on them. If you find webs, and dust particles on them that move slowly long the web, that is a spider mite.

Use a clean white tissue and wipe the underside of the leaves. If you see a rust color on the tissue, that would be red mites.

Look for scaring under the leaves, or a silvery look to leaves, or the latest symptom I have seen is a very thin whiteness to the edge of new growth. That would be one kind of a mite or another.

Feel the leaves for a general over all stickiness. A few dew drops may be normal, but stickiness orver an area is not.

I have seen so far about 5 or 6 different kinds of mites. All too small to see, but some much smaller than others, some fast moving like the spider mite, and some that park themselves like cars in a parking lot, and don't move at all, like the red mite.

All of the mites are not sensitive to most pesticides. You will need something that is listed as good for mites. Some old time pesticides like Cygon 2e are no longer effective on some mites. Neem oil works well, but you must be very thorough in the spraying, and dump the leftover solution thru the pot. Also might want to repeat the spraying in a week or two. All neem oil sprayed plants will have to be kept out of bright light and warm environments for a day after spraying. If you have any other plants in the area, you must treat them too, since, by the time these symptoms are noticed, the problem is very bad, and will no doubt have had a few bugs move on to other plants.

Now, if you find nothing, you may want to spray with neem oil just as a preventative measure, and if there in fact was something, it would be eliminated. I was spraying about once every month or two with neem on general principles until this warm weather came.

Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

[mintyfresh]

Spiders are great beings to have around! All of them are predaceous. They will not eat your orchid but they will eat arthropod pests of orchids. Keep in mind that using broad-spectrum chemical sprays will kill beneficials as well as pests.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

In a home or a greenhouse, one can not depend on 'benificials'. And anyone that sells organically maintained plants should be avoided as a source of orchids or the purchaser should be prepared to spray the plant upon arrival. Outdoors is another matter, but I'd probably spray there too. Even just a few sucking insects can spread virus. Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

[esmithlp]

Mites are spiders. A good residual pesticide like Talstar 1 is good provided you use a light mixture of it. Talstar can be obtained from your local "bug man" if you have good report with him you will only need 1/2 oz per gallon of water and use sparingly to control the mites. Also Seven Dust placed around the perimeter of where you keep your plants can help in control and prevention of all pest I do not recomend Seven to be placed on the plants however.