Embracing the bugs..against my better judgement.

[PinkCloud]

So against all my better judgement and against EVERYTHING I've learned about orchids so far I bought myself a real bug infested noid phal. It was squirming with spiders and gnats and who knows what else! I bought it simply because I fell in love with the blooms. (Just proves that I can be such a noob.. )
Well here are some pics of the state it was in.

(There is a gnat sitting on the root. Tried to circle it.. but I know its kind of hard to see..)
I decided to repot it and get rid off all the old media so the bugs wouldn't spread to the rest of my collection. I know I will lose many new buds because of this but maybe/hopefully the bugs wont spread.
I was very happy to realize that the roots were healthy and real long!


Well so far I've sprayed the whole plant in pesticide, killed all spiders (Yes I did it all myself, I showed those spiders who was boss and flushed them down the toilet!!! ) and removed all cobwebs and old media. I let it sit a while in some rooting hormone and carefully repotted it. phew!
Now it is quarantined in the bathroom!

So tell me have you ever done this? Thrown all your know-how aside just because of pretty blooms?
And also is there any advise you could give me with this new addition?

And oh yes.. You probably want to see the blooms that made me go temporarily nuts!

[Paul Mc]

LOL... I can't say I have ever bought an orchid that I knew was infested! Very brave of you!

I don't know how many orchids you have, but as someone here paraphrased it, "One is too many, 40 is not enough."

Enjoy your new orchid!

[PinkCloud]

Paul Mc -> Come on Paul, I can take it.. It wasn't brave of me just really, really dumb! LOL
Even the fact that I only payed £3.20 for it won't help if the spiders take over my entire collection! And now that I've killed off their relatives I think I can hear them plotting their next attack!

[Paul Mc]

You'd better sleep with one eye open then! LOL...

[Eyebabe]

Bugs either scare the crap out of me or piss me off depending upon the bug.
....and no matter how pretty the blooms are, I just can get over it

I have an arsenal of pesticides, fungicides and bactericides that would kill, in a nuclear fashion, anything that metabolizes

Still, not enough to make me even think of undertaking such a task

I wish you the all the best my dear

PS. nice blooms!

[Gin]

Not me ! I have the closet of horrors, full of bug killers .
But miss one egg and they can come back just when you think all is ok .. Good luck with it hope you got em ..

[PinkCloud]

Paul Mc -> yes one eye open and mouth shut just in case the urban legend of swallowing spiders in your sleep would happen to be true..

Eyebabe -> hmm.. I'm intrigued by your arsenal, if all fails I'll call you for back up!

Gin -> see that's what I'm afraid of! I'm sure I didn't get all the eggs out.. And I haven't had to fight of spiders before this, so I'm not sure what to really do to make sure they don't return..

How does one get rid of spiders?

[Paul]

Why would you want to get rid of spiders? They can't harm your plant and kill off bugs.

[phalaephila]

Yes, I had the same questions about the spiders. They can be effective predators on other bugs that feed on plants. I also dont' want to go too far with chemical pesticides, that's what is scary to me...

[silken]

If it was spider mites, then I wouldn't even consider the plant. But a regular spider shouldn't be too hard to get rid of. If you wiped off that webby cover where the eggs likely are, and maybe gave the leaf a wipe with neem oil or something, I would say its gone! Especially if you found the adult. As for fungus gnats, the eggs and little larvae reside in the potting media and the adults can't fly far, so since you thoroughly removed the media (from your pics) and washed everything with pesticide, I bet you will be just fine! That's an awesome set of roots and lovely blooms. Scale, mealy bugs and spider mite are another game altogether in IMHO. Enjoy your new Phal, but it is likely a good idea to quarantine just to be safe.