Is it really spinder mites?

[Becca]

Hi everyone!

I had a friend over from my local orchid society and we noticed one of my paph's (Paph. Macbre) well established in s/h not looking so hot on the old fan and on some of the newer mature fans (it has about 3 fans total). The description of damage, the older fan leaves are yellowing and one leaf is turning brown, I figured this was part of it's natural aging process and losing leaves because it has two other fans (one that has bloomed and one hasn't) and are rootless without the mother plant.

Anyways...on the other two fans we noticed an orange-ish pitting on the underside of the leaves. My friend tried taping the leaves over a piece of white paper and showing me the tiny dots that are supposed to be spider mites. I believe him, but this is in my large orchidarium with humidity 70% to 90% and I thought spider mites didn't like living in high humidity. He also told me I wouldn't really be able to see them with my eye, other then looking like a dot, because they are so small. Well the next day on another orchid that doesn't appear to have any damage, I saw a little orange red bugger running on a leaf so I quickly sprayed it with insecticide. This is in my large orchidarium, only the one plant is showing the signs of damage but I am going to spray the entire collection in the large orchidarium anyways, but how are they living in my high humidity? And what should I do for treating the potting medium, I am sure they are in the potting medium as well, and will they be in the s/h culture potting medium too with it's moistness? I am so confused? I have a lot of plants to treat, the spraying of leaves isn't a problem, but how do I treat the potting medium, I don't think I would have enough to dunk all the pots of potting medium in insecticide?

Sorry this is so long!

[Cookiemonster]

I find mites LOVE any soft orchids- phals, paphs, oncidiums, zygos and the sorts. I would get some rubbing alcohol and wipe it on the underside of the leaves and see if you get a yellow/rusty looking tint, if you do then your in trouble! That would be the typical red mite, if you see pin marks or pitting then it might the false spider mite.

It is odd that with your humidity your getting mites-

What I would recommend is getting Safers Insecticidal Spray and every 3 DAYS, you spray the living daylights out the plant if you miss a single crevice or corner they WILL be back! Also spray the top the medium. Also a dunk into lightly soapy water mix will be good for the medium-
Also rotate between safers and something else so mites do not develop resistant, TAKE NO PRISONERS!

You will have to continue do spray for 3-4 weeks till you've killed parents, yougins and eggs!

[Becky15349]

Mites are the worst!! I highly recomment neem oil; its a horticultural oil that is organic and safe to use in the home.

I use a pressure mister (a spray bottle will do) and put a small dash on neem oil to roughly 1/2 a gallon and a drop of kitchen dish soap to act as a surfactant - it helps the solution to adhere and really get all the crevices of the leaves. Over 2 months, spray 1x a week - this helps to kill the mites in each life cycle. And spray EVERYplant that was around the infected one, because mites travel easily. good luck!

I also meant to say, some mites don't care about humidity, and some do - unfortuntaely, if you have the tell-tale white speckles on your leaves and webbing underneath, you've got mites.

[Becca]

Thank you both for the recommendations! I don't see any webbing, or white speckles on the leaves, just the orange-ish rust brown pitting on the undersides and then I saw the red-orange colored bug on a different leaf.

[(..._...)]

I had this problem too. I noticed it when my plants got a strange rust coloring over them, but had no webs. Ill see if I still have the pictures... anyways, yes, you are much better off to spray everything, otherwise you will land up with another infected plant in a few weeks

Originally Posted by Becca

Thank you both for the recommendations! I don't see any webbing, or white speckles on the leaves, just the orange-ish rust brown pitting on the undersides and then I saw the red-orange colored bug on a different leaf.

[(..._...)]

Here is my post from the summer:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...hing-else.html

[camille1585]

Just a thought, what about rust fungus? Rust has pretty much the symptoms you describe, and it needs a moist environment for it to grow. As for the tiny dots that you see on the white paper, those could be the spores of the rust.

[Becca]

Camille that is a good point. I had a problem like this with the rest of my paph's early last year but the rust was on the top and bottom of the leaves, I couldn't keep up with it or get rid of it so I tossed the paph's. But....what was that little red-orange bug I saw. He was pretty tiny, couldn't make out a shape really. Was this just a coincidence and the bug is something else? You would think growing indoors I could keep the bugs away but with buying plants and adding them to the collection it is pretty much impossible!

[Becca]

Originally Posted by (..._...)

Here is my post from the summer:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...hing-else.html

Thank you for this link! It was very interesting to read. I don't think my problem is due to lack of humidity (it is around (70% to 90%) and I don't think it is due to high temps, as the high is in the low to mid 70's at this time. I tried wiping the undersides with a cotton ball and I did get the red rust flecks, but I have also used cinnamon on this plant and a few of the surrounding when I cut some spikes off, so how do I know I wasn't just messy and had some cinnamon clingy to the leaves?

[camille1585]

Do you have any good pics of the symptoms?