Phal leaves eaten by ?????

[mayres]

I picked up a phal on clearance at a big box store about 2-3 months ago planted in sphag - up until this weekend it had been doing fine. I have it in my office environment near a window facing NE. When I came in this morning I couldn't believe what I saw! It appeared that some kind of larvae/bug has been eating the newest leaf and one of the smaller thinner earlier leaves? I've been growing phals for about two years now and have never encountered anything like this. Is it possible that something "woke up" in that sphag and came out looking for a nice "salad" for lunch? Any suggestions?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Looks like a snail or slug has been eating. Probably been munching on roots up to this point, tho I would have thought that the moss would be to dificult to move around in. Look at the bottom of the pot. Sometimes they make a home in the cavity formed by the drainage material put in the bottom. This is why I don't like to use broken crock or styrfoam peanuts. Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

[ryan_d_cruz]

A slug/snail is a higher possibility (look for slime trails) as Cynthia mentioned, but i I just had my phal buds eaten up by a caterpillar, so check the plant thoroughly, especially if you see small tiny black pellets (like very tiny sand grains), its a sure sign of something other than a snail or slug

[Ellen]

You've gotta hope that whatever is eating your phal came in with it and isn't living in your office. I know it's Oregon, but slugs in the office? When I lived in Houston for a short time there were cockroaches that lived in my office and they would get in the back of the bindings on my books and eat the glue. They ate a lot of other surprising things, too, and I'm sure they wouldn't have turned down some juicy phal leaves. You could try putting slug pellets out around your plant. If it is a slug, it will probably go for the pellets and meet a well-deserved end. Good luck catching the culprit.

[mayres]

This is very mysterious to me as I have had about 20 orchids in my office year round now for two years and this is the first plant that has ever shown anything like this. Snails or slugs in the office is a pretty far out concept unless somehow it has grown up in the sphag? I think I will take the plant out and put in another medium. It is the only phal I have in sphag and was just leaving it in there to see if I could actually make it thrive without rotting the roots like I have done before in sphag. :-) Actually a local grower I visited has had excellent retults with coconut pith media - so maybe I'll try that after I clean it up from its current state and see how it goes - thanks for the comments! mike

[mayres]

Update - Plant was removed from pot and media and no critters were found. It is now repotted in coconut pith so we'll see how it goes.......mystery unsolved.......