Urr..mites?

[prisana]

Happy New Year everybody !! I was outside inspecting my orchids this morning and I saw some of buds on my phal spikes are starting to shrivel !! After I busted out the mag-glass I notice the mites on there with the web so thin , almost invisible . I read a few threads on mites and found neem oil is effective on them, but will it kill my flower buds ? They were just talking about mites on leaves, not flower spikes. I used neem oil on my vanda buds before and it killed all the buds on the spike. Bayer rose and flower won't work on mites, will it?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

No, Rose & Flower won't work on mites, and the synthetic pyrethrin in it is not good for flowers. When you used neem oil, did you use the ready mixed neem oil? I note that these also contain a syn. pyrethrin, and this may be what ruined your blooms. I used to use real pyrethrin on blooms to dissuade slugs from eating my flowers until I could get rid of them, and had to respray every 2 or 3 days to be effective. But, this was a very light dusting of the chemical on the flowers, only enough to make the flowers taste bad to the slugs. If you have the ready mixed neem oil, you may want to try the very light dusting idea on the flowers, just as a stop gap measure to slow down the mites until the plant is out of bloom, and a heavier dose on the plant. If you have neem oil without anything, that may not be as tough on the flowers, but you will have to be the ginea pig here. I have use plain neem oil many times in my greenhouse with flowers present, and I think a few may have been affected, but not all.

[prisana]

Hi Cynthai, I used the ferti-lome Triple Action Plus and mixed it myself. It has
70% neem oil extract. I'm not sure if I just sprayed too much or I just didn't remove my Vanda form it's usually spot..( partial sun ) . Should I just go ahead and use it ? This is the second spike on the phal thatt had been chewed off by squirrels, looks like it really wants to bloom, it branched out this 2nd spike and I would hate to kill it ( again )

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I think so. Just don't over do the spraying on the flowers, and mind the heat and bright light rules. It may also be that Vanda flowers are more sensitive than Phal flowers, atleast I hope so. Also, I think the second spraying in two weeks should also be followed. That neem oil concentrate that you have is free of pyrethrins, but I had very definite problems with it on some plants because they got a lot of over spray and therefore got a very heavy dose.

[Ellen]

One more thing - you should check all your plants for spider mites. If one plant has them, chances are they are on others, too. In any case, keep the plant or plants you're treating isolated until you know the pests are gone. My own experience is that keeping humidity up and spraying the leaves of your plants with water occasionally helps prevent spider mites.

[prisana]

Thanks guys..that sounds easy enough.--