Scale like bump. May be an egg?

[Dimples]

In case it wasn’t clear, you need to treat every plant in your growing area. Ideally you’d treat every plant in your home since they can travel.

[Keysguy]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Enough for a tiny amount of bubbles, just enough to break the surface tension. Not like a bubble bath.

Exactly. Maybe 4 or 5 drops at the most.

[sweta]

A word of caution though if you are going to go the route of drowning the entire plant in soap water. There is a chance of crown or stem rot particularly with phals. Scale is a serious pest and does need very agressive treatment as estación suggested. I have personally had to treat my entire orchid collection drowning them in soap water but I lost couple.of very healthy phals due to stem/crown rot. I did everything I could to let the water drain from the leaf joins. After removing them from soap water solution. I hung the orchid upside down hanging on a rope for few hours.to make sure water drains out and also kept a fan running to dry the plant nicely. But inspite of everything I lost some phals and I was able to save 2 phals with timely intervention, both of them are luckily growing basal keikis. So just pay close attention for any kind of stem rot after this treatment because the earlier.you are able.to detect there are greater chances of saving the plant. All my oncidiums did just fine but I think phals are.more prone to stem rot. Good luck with the treatment. Scale.is extremely annoying pest, very hard to get rid of so you might have to repeat treatment weekly for couple of weeks. You can try the imidacloprid systemic insecticide after the soap water treatment that way you can get rid of surviving scale eggs or nymphs.

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

I will definitely look out for that! I gave everything a good overnight soak. They were all under for more than 12 hours. Here’s to big sinks! I was even able to fit my 3 foot spike with branches in it! I also bleached the whole area and all the pots and my plant box. I seem to be bleach nose dead but I cleared the room of people too! I didn’t remove the spikes yet because I’m hoping the soak works and I’ve got new buds growing in them. I will if it doesn’t go away though.

Sweta, what was the imidacloprid systemic insecticide? Was that the Bayer 3-in-1?

[sweta]

Originally Posted by Girl_With_An_Orchid

I will definitely look out for that! I gave everything a good overnight soak. They were all under for more than 12 hours. Here’s to big sinks! I was even able to fit my 3 foot spike with branches in it! I also bleached the whole area and all the pots and my plant box. I seem to be bleach nose dead but I cleared the room of people too! I didn’t remove the spikes yet because I’m hoping the soak works and I’ve got new buds growing in them. I will if it doesn’t go away though.

Sweta, what was the imidacloprid systemic insecticide? Was that the Bayer 3-in-1?

If you can get liquid imidacloprid systemic insecticide that is approved for indoor use that will be best. I dont know if they have the liquid form. I purchased the systemic granules recently but that is no good because the granules are very tiny and they just run to the bottom of the pot when watering if you are using pots with slits. Granules are meant for normal potting soil and not for airy bark media. I'm just using the 3 in 1 bayers for now. Because the granules just dont stay on the bark unfortunately.

[Dimples]

Bayer (Bio Advanced?) Tree and Shrub is imidacloprid and can be used as a drench/soak. It has a higher % of the active ingredient than other products because it’s meant for trees, so make sure you absolutely follow all of the instructions, including the disposal instructions (do NOT put it down any drains).

I think the St. Augustine orchid society has instructions for mixing imidacloprid for use on orchids depending on the % imidacloprid in the product.

[Toadwally]

I'll keep this arrow in my quiver.

[Keysguy]

3 in 1 absolutely comes in liquid form and that's what I use, when I need to use it.

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

Originally Posted by Toadwally

I'll keep this arrow in my quiver.

Agreed! Thanks!

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

So the soaking looks liked it worked! It’s been 5 days and no sign of bugs! Sweta, I’m glad you mentioned the crown rot. I did have one orchid start to rot but it’s seems to have dried after only one leaf but it seems to have dried. I’m keeping an eye on it. The flowers did not survive either, but I can live with that. I do weep for my lost spike though. 3’ and 22 flowers… it would have been so amazing!