Mystery Bugs in Phals, HELP! - Orchid Board

orchidgirl82 · #1 07-22-2009, 11:29 PM

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to the board and I am hoping you all can help me.
I have 12 phals in my NYC apt. They are indoor plants and have been doing well, I'm not sure what happened, but somehow they all have weird bugs in them. They are all repotted in fresh mix and some are as old as 3 years so I am really confused how this happened...

I have confirmed that I have fungus gnats in many of them and i read about the trick to use a potato to see if you have larvae in the plants (the whole thing really grosses me out but we all love our chids so we do it, right...), which brings me to my question...

I cut the potatoes in half to test if my other orchids had larvae in them, instead of the larvae coming to the potato, i got a whole bunch of these TINY little brown spots that are moving around on it. I have no idea what they are and if they are bad for the plant. I never would have even been able to see them without the potato since they are SO SMALL. I would take a pic but they are so tiny that it wouldn't show. They are the size of the period on the screen.

Has anyone seen anything like this before and should i be concerned??? It really grosses me out that they are all these bugs living in my orchids. I tried watering them with a dish soap mixture but as soon as i did the fungus gnats got worse so i'm letting them dry out...

Can anyone help??
Thank you!

s.kallima · #2 07-22-2009, 11:39 PM

they are probably springtails. Usually they don't hurt the plants, they feed on the soil particles (old bark, algae).
I have a lot in my orchids and I can see them on the leaves with no consequences for the orchids. Actually I think they eat the green algae growing on my plant!

Fungus gnats are another problem... have you tried the yellow sticky pads? Also, and because your plants are Phal, you can afford to let the soil dry a bit more for a few days from time to time to kill theses larvae (they need moist soil to live)

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #3 07-23-2009, 03:02 AM

Fungus gnat larvae have transparent bodies with black heads. They look like tiny caterpillars.

Like s. kallima said, they're probably springtails.

The reason why someone recommended using a slice of potato to entice fungus gnat larvae to get on it is because some kinds of fungus smell like a raw potato tuber freshly cut in half.

If you ever grew Pleurothallids some of them have that same smell. In fact you can pretty much guess what the pollinator of an orchid is based off the flower's fragrance. For example, Restrepia muscifera flowers smell like a freshly cut raw potato and most likely has fungus gnats as their pollinators.

orchidgirl82 · #4 07-23-2009, 02:34 PM

thanks for the feedback everyone.

This is really embarrassing, but I think i have three different bugs in my plants...

1) fungus gnats - I spotted clear larvae and the adults are buzzing around. I have sticky traps around, tried using cinnamon and dish soap concoctions etc...still fighting the problem. At this point I'm letting them dry out.

2) Springtails - these are the tiny gray bugs that i see on the bottom of my pots that move around and occasionally jump if i spray them with my cinnamon mixture. From what you all say i don't have to worry about them to much.

3) These are the one's I'm confused about. They are the TINY black round things that came to the potato. They move kinda slow. Are these babies of one of the other insects or something totally different?

s.kallima · #5 07-23-2009, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orchidgirl82

thanks for the feedback everyone.

3) These are the one's I'm confused about. They are the TINY black round things that came to the potato. They move kinda slow. Are these babies of one of the other insects or something totally different?

I think they are also sprintails. These bugs come in many forms and shape!!! The round black ones are the ones I was talking about, chewing on the algae on my orchids, like ultra-miniature 6-legs cows

orchidgirl82 · #6 07-23-2009, 03:16 PM

wow. that is really gross.
Thank you for the pic. i guess that is sorta what they look like although i have not seen them that close...

i had no idea they came in different shapes.
Are they bad? How do i get rid of them??

s.kallima · #7 07-23-2009, 03:42 PM

They are not bad for the orchid, they will feed on the decomposing medium. If you really want to get rid of them (but they are a natural part of a live soil...), the best is to get some fresh orchid mix (or if yours is recent, depot your plants and sterilize the mix by boiling it 30 minutes if needed) and repot your orchids after cleaning them under the tap (remove ALL the bark around the roots). That way you should also get rid of the fungus gnats larvas.

orchidgirl82 · #8 07-23-2009, 04:36 PM

thank you so much.

I have not heard of boiling the sphagnum moss so that is what i will try...i guess i might as well do it to all my orchids since i clearly have an infestation! And the mix i buy is pricey and I don't want have to buy a whole new shipment when it's all brand new.

Last time I bring a new chid home from IKEA!

Thanks again!!!

orchidgirl82 · #9 07-23-2009, 05:02 PM

By the way...if I boil all the moss, I'm assuming I will need to sterilize all my clear plastic pots I keep them all in. And if i sterilize one, i must do them all or it can spread back to it from the others right? Is there a good way to do 6 at a time??

I can't shell out for all new supplies right now!

Thank you!

ps...how do i know the bugs are not thrips?? they sound similar...

s.kallima · #10 07-23-2009, 08:37 PM

Are your orchids potted in pure sphagnum moss ? or is there bark also? When I was talking about boiling the mix, I was thinking of bark... If you just have moss, boiling it will be too hard on the sphagnum and it will turn into a puree! So don't boil the moss, but you can soak it in water + a few drops of dish soap for an hour (you will see all the bugs floating on the surface of the water, so you can get them with paper towel
As for the pots, just wash them in water with 10% of bleach if you have (white vinegar also works) and rinse.

Thrips are usually found under the leaves, not in the soil, and they don't jump like springtails. They also have tiny wings that look like feathers (when they are adults). If you have thrips, you should notice tiny dark spots on the flower petals, as well as under the leaves. 'Injured leaves and stems dry out giving a whitish or silver-flecked appearance'.