bug

[electric.chowder]

I recently got a new phal, and have noticed over the past couple of days little white-ish deposits on the leaves, so I scraped them off whenever I noticed them, and all were attached pretty firmly. Then one day I saw a little white bug on the underside of a leaf (but the plant had been outside, so it could have been from anywhere) I havn't seen the bug recently but little spots continue to appear, tried to get a pic of it, hopefully you can see what I'm talking about, it's the white spot near the base in the center of the leaf, the green spots are places where I scraped the other 'pods' off

thanks!

[mayres]

The only thing white that comes to mind is mealy bugs. Do you know what they look like? Regardless, my recommendation is twofold - Bayer Rose & Flower Insect Killer (comes in a ready to use spray bottle at most garden departments) or for the more natural method - worm tea - sprayed and watered on your plant. mike

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

If these are pretty darn circular, are like a flake, and come off pretty easily with a nudge from a thumb nail, I would say it is scale. Mike's recommendation for the Bayer Advanced Rose & Flower should do the trick. It is imidaclopride that counts, any other ingredient, maybe a pyrethroid, isn't important. For all that have large collections with either scale or mealies, you can get Bayer advanced Tree and Shrub with imidacloprid and figure out the amount needed to give equal strength to the Rose and Flower formula. A second or third spraying/drenching a week or so apart might be a good idea, since scale is sometimes hard to get rid of. I would look at your other plants too, and the Rose & Flower is gentle enough to not worry about treating all your plants.

[kmarch]

If they're mealies, they'll look like a little white scaly thing, a bit fuzzy looking, a little like a tiny living spot of cotton. If it's them they're fortunately pretty easy to erradicate. I find 1 or 2 applications of a mild insecticide like Safer's Soap will elimninate them. If ti turns out to be scale, they're a little more persistent and it may require multiple applications to kill them off.

[electric.chowder]

will the worm tea work on scale as well? and is it something that is at most general nursuries? I'd prefer to not put anything too unnatural on my plants, but if I must, I guess I don't have any other choice


thanks!

[gerneveyn]

There's an organic insecticide called Orange Guard, which can be sprayed on plants. However it is recommended that for applying to areas that include new orchid growth or open blooms it should be diluted, (4 parts water, 1 part Orange Guard). Here's a list of stores that carry it: http://orangeguard.com/buy.html

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

If it is scale, I think the systemic B A Rose and Flower is the way to go, as the other more labor intensive tecniques just never seem to eradicate the problem completely. If you do a good job in getting rid of them, you won't have any more problems with that particular bug unless you bring another bug in with a new plant. It is nice to have a bug free collection.