I've got bugs

[sunshine]

EWWWWWWWWWWW I have aphids on my Samuri Warrior and blooming den
Found a mealy bug on my Zygo

Have treated both plants and flowers with Concern. Active ingedient is
pyrethrin,an extract derived from the African chrysanthemum. Have treated
the other chids that were near those 2. I am glad I did an inspection before
I left on run to Michigan.

Here is a link I found on mealy bugs

All About Mealybugs | All About Mealy bugs

Also found this on orchids and mealy bugs

Mealybugs on Orchids

[fred]

great links sunshine
sometimes I get these little buggers in the new growths of my orchids as well
I don't spray heavy I get them out with tweezers or a pin first then a light spray so I don't cause the new growths to rot.

[sunshine]

Originally Posted by fred

great links sunshine
sometimes I get these little buggers in the new growths of my orchids as well
I don't spray heavy I get them out with tweezers or a pin first then a light spray so I don't cause the new growths to rot.

Thanks Fred.

Feel free to make these links into a sticky.

[fred]

better still I just made the thread Sticky
good idea

[digitalgate]

you need to repeat the spray to get rid of the young ones. They grow really fast - like two days? So you don't think you have get rid of them until you repeat the spray after two day followed by weekly spray.

[orchidlover55]

Sunshine I am glad you found them before you left too. Now that is what I call consistency Good orchid mommy

[starwhiz]

do you need a magnifying glass to find these critters or are they visible? I noticed little
white spots on my Lc. Jungle Flare. Not sure if they are bugs. I removed them and a week later, I see more white spots.

[PhalPal]

Very helpful links sunshine - thanks! I hope i never have to use the information, but I have it on my desktop to 'ward off evil spirits!!'

As mentioned above, do several treatments a few days apart just to be sure you get them all. This pretty much applies to any bug. I like to give my plants a good bath with my fingers and mild soap to remove as many of the whatevers I can and then I spray. Removing sheaths or dead plant parts helps the spray to get into all the nooks and crannies, too.

[sunshine]

Originally Posted by starwhiz

do you need a magnifying glass to find these critters or are they visible? I noticed little
white spots on my Lc. Jungle Flare. Not sure if they are bugs. I removed them and a week later, I see more white spots.

No, you don't ned a magnifying glass to see the aphids or mealy bugs. I saw a white spot on my Zygo and looked closer and it was a mealy bug Make sure your treat the plant and all others that are near to it. Or you will have an infestation. These little buggers will suck the life right out of your plants. Here is a link on aphids.

Aphids Management Guidelines--UC IPM

[LauraGR]

If the white spots remove easily on your finger, and seem sort of soft and sticky, they're probably mealybugs. Like I said elsewhere, I got a real infestation of them during the summer when I was paying more attention to my outside garden, and whoosh! All of a sudden it was pretty bad. I don't like using chemicals - either for fertilizing or pest control, inside or outside, especially with curious grandkids around, so I just use the insecticidal soap. It works just fine on mealybugs, especially with help from Q tips.

[shaz]

great links! I currently have 3 plants in isolation due to mealy bugs...I'm glad to report that I am winning at the mo as I am picking off fewer and fewer now at every check...

[mehitabel]

Good article, sunshine. Thanks

[sunshine]

I found a mealybug today on my paph. Not only on the stem but inside
the clip that holds the stem to the stake.

Those little clips make excellent hiding places. What I did was treat my paph
and then took the clip and stake and washed in very hot soapy dishwater with bleach. Rinse with more hot water and let air dry.

[orchidenvy]

so what's a good bath? remove all media and clip dry, discolored roots and gently massage THE PLANT while also dunking the FLOWERS AND ALL? sorrysosimple... btw i've checked out every post and thread here and nothing about these micro-speck bugs in my media... is Dawn ok?

[sunshine]

Originally Posted by orchidenvy

so what's a good bath? remove all media and clip dry, discolored roots and gently massage THE PLANT while also dunking the FLOWERS AND ALL? sorrysosimple... btw i've checked out every post and thread here and nothing about these micro-speck bugs in my media... is Dawn ok?

Dawn is fine. I just washed the stake and clip and rinsed very well.

[PaulB]

Just a tidbit- Ladybugs take care of aphids, big time. I also like to see them on my plants. They're like little guardians. Not sure if they are in your area, but a good natural way of getting those buggers out. Not sure if they like mealy bugs, though. I'll ask them.

[DoctorB]

orchidenvy,
I have little white bugs in my medium too! Last week during watering I saw them moving as a phal was draining. This week, two more have the crawlers. They are very very small (maybe 1/4mmX1/2mm), oblong, and fast. They aren't on the plant, just crawl out of the bark after watering.

Also, I have seen something similar when I bought medium for repotting and noticed a little white fast bug before repotting. I took it back and have inspected new medium prior to use.

Does this sound like what you have too?

[sunshine]

Originally Posted by DoctorB

orchidenvy,
I have little white bugs in my medium too! Last week during watering I saw them moving as a phal was draining. This week, two more have the crawlers. They are very very small (maybe 1/4mmX1/2mm), oblong, and fast. They aren't on the plant, just crawl out of the bark after watering.

Also, I have seen something similar when I bought medium for repotting and noticed a little white fast bug before repotting. I took it back and have inspected new medium prior to use.

Does this sound like what you have too?

White and fast isn't a mealy bug. Mealy bugs look like little cotton balls, very soft and don't move very fast. Could be springtails. One of the other geeks can tell you more about springtails than me.

I am dealing with mealy bugs right now

[gravotrope]

This is a great thread, I feel compelled to add to it...

There are so many different types of bugs, and each bug has different developmental stages (called Instars), that it can seem a little daunting to have to first identify the species, then determine if there is ongoing damage, and finally concoct a strategy for elimination or maintenance of the "problem." So we'll skip most of that I guess...

Strategies for a few Common Bugs: But I have springtails too... the tiny oblong white bugs that aren't worms/larvae living in the soil. Basically they are too small to see very clearly with the naked eye, and this is one of the ways you can HELP to identify them. They eat the decaying material in the pot and disperse the microorganisms throughout the medium. I would say this is beneficial, but there are clearly a variety of different species of springtail, and so there PROBABLY is a type of springtail that could have evolved to damage YOUR plants, sorry...I also have other bugs that are slowly eating my plants so don't worry I'm in the same boat...one type that I can't identify with a tiny red face, round black body, and two tiny white spots on the back. If you think they're doing damage then carefully remove as much of the "infected" medium as you can {which you should do in the case of fungus gnats, as well as keep your plants almost completely dry for a couple of weeks and/or get sticky traps} and repot your orchids more often. Spider mites should GENTLY be physically removed and/or sprayed with a mild neem or DIY application two or three times between 11 and 14 days apart.

Several Air-based strategies: Bugs breathe, so theoretically there are substances (such as live Basil or Nasturtiums or pureed fresh onion or garlic, or something with a strong clove smell) that can repel different insects to different degrees without even contacting the plants. Orchids though burly can be sensitive to chemicals (though capsaicin, in hot pepper wax, is interestingly a vanilloid...) so be careful with foliar sprays ! The other side of the coin here is that you could actually put or start OTHER plants next to host plants that the visitors' instincts tell them to eat instead...like mustard greens or lambsquarters...and then move those plants far, far away, deep into a compost pile when they are "full."

Other strategies: Stopping the bugs from breathing is another strategy, BUT this also stresses the plants since they get coated with oil (white oil, safer's soap, or even just 5% olive oil:1% dish soap:94%water) as well. Instead of Trachea (holes in the bug body that absorb oxygen from the air) the plants get stressed because they have Stomata (holes in the leaf that maximize absorption of carbon dioxide yet minimize the amount of water vapor lost in the exchange) and so repeated applications of oils (not administered during the high heat of the day) need to give the plant enough time to break through the coating and breathe...which is the opposite of what you want to happen to the bugs.

A Cupboard Approach: Make a mild tea to spray on the plants out of household items or plants. Flowers like daisies/asters that bugs don't eat, coffee/tea/yerba mate, lemon juice, and/or spices can be made into a homebrew of tea to be sprayed onto your plants, and as long as you have an idea how much plant oils get on the plants you can keep from doing damage. Besides recording your mixtures in case you find something that really works well or end up stressing your plants, you should stick with what works and go from there! Olive oil, cayenne pepper, cinnamon/cloves, raw onion/garlic, lemon juice, liquid soap shouldn't make up more than a TENTH to a quarter of the recipe when combined with water and strained to make a foliar spray.

So you need to make sure whatever route you go to care and maintain your orchids that if you buy a commercial product you would be wise to try and go a little less than a full strength mix as the directions say...and remember you will have to apply it a few times to work through the different instars as they grow up no matter what path you take.

[Leafmite]

Dealing with mealy bugs right now, too. Had a blooming where the flowers weren't right. There wasn't color break (tye-dye) but the faded color and spots had me scared (the dreaded V-word) until I looked a little closer. The mealies were at the bottom of the spike and on the base of the flowers. I suspect some hid inside the flower, too. Still have the orchid seperate from the others. At every watering, I go over the plants and remove what I find. I have a little spider who roves the plants, too. I hate these things.
Leafmite

[1joyceh]

Hi and welcome to the Forum gravotrope!!
Thanks for the information

[PaulB]

Useful and sensible information! Thanks for the info and...

Welcome! Gravotrope!

[JungleMel]

I just had aphids too, an orchid I got as a gift I don't mess around when it comes to that stuff so I use Ortho Rose Pride systemic aerosol spray. Used it for mites in the past too. Kills everything and at worst it stalls the more sensitive stuff for a few weeks. I would definitely recommend it for at least the above two creepers.

[Brandon Tam]

Try using alcohol. Rubbing alcohol that is... Hahahaha! I don't know.. would drinking alcohol work? Gotta try that out one day!