Treating for diseases and pests in the house during winter

[Leafmite]

I am not sure how many orchids/plants you have but one year, I bought some new plants midwinter. They brought with them whitefly, scale, mites, and aphids. I also had some mealies. Within a week or so, these issues exploded. I only had the malathion and could not use this indoors. The plants were in very bad condition (the kids were small and I had been busy). I took olive oil one evening and sprayed all the plants and orchids really well, coating everything. The next morning, I carefully/gently washed every leaf/part of plant off with warm, soapy water. For the next two years, I had absolutely no pests on my plants/orchids. I do not recommend this as a first alternative as it takes quite a bit of time to wash the olive oil off the leaves (and it must come off as it is so thick). But...it does a fine job of smothering anything alive on a plant.

[estación seca]

There is horticultural oil, too.

[realoldbeachbum]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

Pests are a bit more difficult. This year, I bought a bunch of organic insecticidal soap and Neem Oil but I am currently trying food-grade Diatomaceous Earth. If the DE doesn't work, I am going to wash the plants off with soap and water, then spray with the Insecticidal soap for three weeks. A new one is spinosad being used as a pesticide. Here is a fact sheet:

Spinosad General Fact Sheet

My first pest outbreak: This morning I noticed the under sides of two paphs (and several nearby houseplants) have spots that look like black pepper and the top sides have thin silver trails wiggling up and down the leaves.

From information on the St. Augustine Pest Site, it appears that I have an infestation of either Thrips or Mites.

I isolated the plants and sprayed them with an Espoma Insect Control that I had on hand. The label claims to kill both pests.

My question: Is there a systemic drench that I can put in the water to prevent this from spreading to my other 92 orchids? (Yes, I am looking for an easy solution!) If not a systemic drench, is there a spray that I can just coat all the plants?

I grow in a basement with outside door and no connectivity to the rest of the house. I would be able to take them outside and spray them down if necessary, but that WOULD BE A LOT OF WORK!

LM – Did the Dia Earth work? What about the Spinosad?
All advice is GREATLY appreciated.

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

I’m curious about this as well. After several years of orchid owning I finally have my first infestation: scale. Most likely brown scale. I just had aphids on a pepper plant and used a soap based pesticide and it killed the whole thing. I’m was going to try the method 1 pps but I don’t think it’s available in stores. What has been most successful for people for scale? I’ve been having such great success lately. I really don’t want to hurt my babies!

[Leafmite]

D.E. did not really work on the scale or mealy bugs. I washed all the plants well every time I saw the mealy bugs flare up, waited until the plants dried, then drenched them in insecticidal soap that day and a few days later and, again, a week later but they would always make a quick, explosive return. They are immune to systemic so that was no help.

What I am trying this year....
This spring, I tossed any plants that had repeating mealy bug issues. Hopefully, this will help break the cycle.
The pests leave the passionfruit alone so I planted my new jasmine in a community pot with them and the pot is near the rooted Artemisia absinthium cutting I made this spring. I have the citrus and jasmine separated by geraniums (nothing seems to bother those, either).
I am trying to see if coffee grounds are indeed a systemic.
I inspect all my plants every few days so that if I see mealy bugs, I can, hopefully, treat the plants right away.

[Ray]

For indoor use, I rely on either Azamax or BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Insect, Disease & Mite Control. Scale is a listed insect for Azamax.

No matter what you use, it is important that you do a thorough treatment, wetting all plant surfaces and drenching the potting medium, repeating that a total of 3 times at 1-week intervals.

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

Ray, is drenching the potting medium sufficient or is it better to repot? I was told that repotting was best in another post but that is a lot of potting material to go through. I was also wondering about the orchids that aren't showing any signs of the scale. They are not in contact with the infected plants. DO they need treatment too?

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Girl_With_An_Orchid

Ray, is drenching the potting medium sufficient or is it better to repot? I was told that repotting was best in another post but that is a lot of potting material to go through. I was also wondering about the orchids that aren't showing any signs of the scale. They are not in contact with the infected plants. DO they need treatment too?

Part of the reason to drench the potting medium is to allow the roots to take up the insecticide. Replacing the potting medium doesn't do that.

Whenever I treat plants, I treat them all. Plants that are not showing signs of infestation could still be harboring "bad guys".

[Dimples]

Originally Posted by Girl_With_An_Orchid

Ray, is drenching the potting medium sufficient or is it better to repot? I was told that repotting was best in another post but that is a lot of potting material to go through. I was also wondering about the orchids that aren't showing any signs of the scale. They are not in contact with the infected plants. DO they need treatment too?

Repotting removes a potential reservoir of existing pests and eggs, and lets you see what’s going on with the roots. Repotting isn’t going to clear the infestation by itself. Some pests will be on the roots in addition to the leaves, so only treating the leaves would be useless. You only need to repot once, and then just drench/soak the medium in the pot with each additional treatment. No need to repot each plant three times with fresh medium.

If you’ve recently repotted any of your plants, you can probably skip repotting those right now.

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

Well I was planning on repotting most of my orchids this spring anyway. I’ve gotten advice to drown the plants fully in water for 6-12 hours so I’m starting with that. Hopefully the lack of oxygen will work.