Bug Infestation

[siriusmk]

Hello everyone. I have a couple phalaenopsis orchids and I just noticed one of my orchids has a bug infestation when watering it. I ususally water my orchids from the bottom up and zillions of microscopic bugs surfaced for air along with several larger dark oval shaped bugs with many tiny legs. I'm not sure if they are harmful to my orchid because the leaves are healthy and the roots that I am able to inspect through the clear plastic pot seem healthy. At first I thought the larger insects were mealy bugs, but from the images I've been able to acquire online would suggest otherwise since they are much lighter than the bugs in the potting media. I plan on repotting my orchid soon to get rid of this infestation. I've been reading about neem oil and was wondering if it would be harmful for me to just drench the orchid roots and new potting media with it and other preventative measure people take to keep insects at bay.

[mayres]

I'm going to guess that at least a part of the bug issue is a bug call psocids, that eat decaying plant/wood (media) material - not harmful to your plants - but I (like you) don't particularly want them hanging around anyway. Rinsing the bare roots and putting in new media will eliminate them. Any insects you might have that would feed on your plants I would spray with bayer rose and flower systemic - comes mixed and ready to use in a spray bottle - I'm sure there are lots of other options and you will get some of those following. Nice thing about phals is that you can tell fairly easy if any insects are involved on the plant with a quick inspection - don't forget to check the undersides of the leaves too. Good luck. mike

I would drench the old medium with the neem oil three times, a week apart, then wash the roots off and put into new, fresh medium.