Mealy bugs gone... how to treat the eggs?

[orchid_newbie]

I just brought a new orchid home and soon noticed a couple white fuzzy mealybugs in the crevices of the leaves. I removed them, but I've read that they lay their eggs in the soil medium. I've read some people run soapy water through the medium, or dunk in insecticidal soap diluted with water...

Do people worry about the medium, or do they just treat the bugs when they appear?

[mehitabel]

I just treat the bugs and don't worry about the medium. If you do drench the medium, be careful watering for a while because the soap in the sprays has a detergent effect keeping the medium wetter than normal for a while.

However, when they appear in the leaf junction, it's hard to get every last one out of there. It's a very tight place to get at, and it's one of their favorite places to establish mealie factories that just keep producing new mealies as fast as you can kill the old ones. Guess how I learned that?

Be sure to spray the stem junction liberally til the spray runs down the stem. Re-treat at least three times three days apart, and keep watching that place to see if more come.

Persistence will finally win out, but in that place you have to be extra vigilant.

[orchid_newbie]

Thanks! I've completed spray #1 today and I'll keep a close eye on it. I'm wondering if it's enough to move it to the other side of the room away from my other plants? My place is quite small!

[mehitabel]

Well, it's probably sacrilege, but I don't move mine. All my good light places have plants in them, so I don't have a quarantine area.

I leave them where they are. I do check the nearby plants to see if the nasties have spread, and keep an eye on the nearby plants for a week or two. Usually mealies and scale leave warnings in the form of shiny spatter on the leaves, so I watch for that on nearby plants.

[orchid_newbie]

Sounds good- Thanks!