IM SO ANGRY!!!!!

[Stefan]

hey everyone ,
as you can tell from the title, not in the best of moods. recently my phal i got for christmas has sent out 2 spikes!!!, that may not seem much, but for me, without a greenhouse, without giving it constant care, its a HUGE acheivement. well i went outside and saw something had eaten it, or it had fell, but all i know is that there is now only one spike left, and its the smaller one. there are no caterpillas around my orchids, i check, but i guess it likely. and there was no slime on or near this one. so im in the dark here. i just had to vent that out. thankyou all for reading, and any advise on how to nail the little buggers will be appreciated.

stefan

[tuvoc]

I feel your pain, Stefan. I've had raccoons play soccer with my outdoor plants, and cats play with my indoor plants.They usually lose interest after a while, and the plants did recover. I'm not sure how to completely avoid it, but your plants might surprise you as to how fast they bounce back. Let's see what someone else has to say.

Kim

[Cookiemonster]

awww poor stefan! Time to bring the plant back indoors, until you can figure out what it is that did that! I find most pests bother the plants right when they're going to flower- eating the spike or chewing off buds!
i have no idea what it is, but atleast you have one spike left!

[snow]

it,s always a great dissapointment to lose a long awaited spike.
but than you still have one left.
good luck with that one; and may it give you plenty of flowers.

[Stefan]

thank you all for your words of support and encouragement. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and sent me over the edge. lots of my plant root tips have been nibbled away. I saw today a slime trail on some of my pots, so its definatly snails that are to blame. Well time to get the pellets, the bucket, and anything eles to kill them, lol. oh well at least i know whats doing it. thank you all again

stefan

[CoolPhrog]

I just read in another post that roaches like to eat root tips and I know from personal experience that squirrels like to eat new leaf growths and spike tips...anything soft and tasty...!!!! I have an Onc. Sharry Baby that sent up a spike (a big one!) and a couple of weeks later, the tip was eaten off (now you'd think I would've learned my lesson since this same thing happened last year) so I left the remaining half and sure enough, it sent up three new spikes from the original eaten one...additionally, there are 6 more spikes on the plant....!!!!

Hang in there Stefan, maybe the plant has so much stored energy that your half eaten spike will re-spike! I'll keep my fingers crossed. Keep us posted!

[DebsC]

Stefan, I know how it feels to lose a spike, sheath or bud you've worked for and waited on.

I'm so sorry this happened to your phal but I'm happy you have one spike left!!

[Royal]

Kill them all!!!!

[Gin]

Sorry Stefan , Take no prisoners .. Gin

[bellini girl]

Death to the slime balls

Lecent