Please identify this pest for me.

[LarryAJ]

I have been keeping this under control by weekly, as I water, checking carefully every leaf and flower stalk on every plant. Still it would be nice to know what it is and how to rid it once and for all.

What is the best or simplest treatment to use? I have successfully used Physan 20 for crown rot on a cattleya but the cautions on the direction pamphlet make it sound like you need level 3 protection gear so I do not want to use it. I was able to take the cattleya out of the house and into another building for the treatment so didn't need to worry about exposure to the vapors.

[musicloveranthony]

deleted

[Judi]

Welcome to OB Larry! Unfortunately it seems like you have scale; the big round ones are the adult scale and the smaller ones are the jouvenile. I use rubbing alcohol to kill the little buggers. I wipe the leaves with a little piece of paper towel soaked with rubbing alcohol. I frequently replace the paper towel with a clean piece until I wiped all the leaves well on all sides and in any crevice. It will take many application a few days apart to kill all the scale as well as a lot of vigilance. Scale are hard to get rid of; just when I think I killed them all I find some are back. Scale spread very quickly, so make sure you keep this chid far from other plants you might have. Good luck!

[Sandy4453]

Yes, that's scale, I'm sorry to say. I have had the worst summer ever with these. They're insidious and will contaminate your other plants so, firstly...be careful and keep the infected ones, quarantined until you can eradicate the problem. I have been battling scale on my Stanhopea and with everything I've done, they've come back. I was using neem (w/equal amt. soap), the plant looked clean for a day or two and then....back again! The Stanhopea was severely infected and just tonight, I sprayed rubbing alcohol on the entire plant and in the medium and then rinsed.

Bottom line, you have to get every nook and crevice because these beasts bury themselves inbetween and down into the plant leaves and if one is left unscathed, you can bet they'll multiply faster than rabbits! Try spraying with the alcohol and be sure to repeat this every other day for at least a week.

Good luck. I know what you're going through.

[johnblagg]

yeah scale do what everyone has recommended for sure but I would add a systemic pesticde to me controll schedual

[ericst11]

ENSTAR