Triple threat- mealies, aphids and scale

[Connie Star]

I had a lovely vacation during which a friend took care of my orchids. When I finally caught up at work and had time to look carefully, I found all 3 pests in various combinations on my orchids.
So far I've carefully inspected and treated the ones in bud or bloom and isolated them.
My question is whether there is one product that will work on all three of these nasties?
I've applied isopropyl alcohol carefully to the worst areas of mealies; Safers soap to the aphids and a pyrethrin spray for the ones with scale. Could I get away with the pyrethrin spray alone?
It's amazing how fast (about 3 weeks) this got out of hand!

[glengary54]

After three weeks you have multiple generations of the buggers running around. No wonder the high numbers.

[camille1585]

Pyrethrin should normally work on all 3, but in order to have an effect on the waxy armored mealies and scale you should add a few drops of dishsoap to the spray bottle. Pyrethrins (I suppose you mean natural pyrethrin) is fast acting but but has very low persistance, so you will need to spray at the very least once a week.

It seems that you want to stay with safer natural products, but with both scale AND mealies, I think your best bet is using an imidacloprid based systemic insecticide, either used as a spray or drench, depending on the formulation.

[tucker85]

How many orchids do you need to treat? If it's a reasonable number, here's my routine. I set up a spot with a hose, a roll of paper towels, some Q-tips, a garbage can and a spray bottle of insecticide soap (Lowes, HD, local nursery). I remove old dried sheath type material from around the psuedobulbs on cattleyas and cut off any dead tissue. I use the paper towels, Q-tips and insecticide soap to wipe off as many visible insects as I can, cleaning all surfaces that I can reach. You need to rub a little to get scale off but it will come off. Clean underneath the leaves really well. Some aphids can be washed off with a spray of water from the hose. After the plants dry I spray all parts of the plant with a horticultural oil. The one I use is Organicide but there are many brands. Spray between the psuedobulbs and the surface of the medium real well and under the leaves. I use latex gloves and a painters mask from HD so I don't breath in the oil. The oil is not a poison but I don't want anything in my lungs. In one week I go back and spray all surfaces of the plant and medium with insecticide soap. It kills the newly hatching insects and washes off most of the oil. One week after that I spray the plant with a systemic insecticide of your choice. Rose Pride has Orthene in it which is good. I think Bayer also makes a systemic insecticide. Then for the next few months I spray the systemic insecticide once a month so that it can begin to build up in the plant tissue. I know this sounds like a lot of work but if you only have a few plants it won't take too long. I did it with 70 plants last time. I've had excellent results. The horticultural oil and the insecticide soap are not poisons so they're safer to work with than actual poisons. Good luck.

[Connie Star]

Thanks for the advice friends.
I think I am going to start with the approach Tucker used. I don't have the option of going outside, as I am in New England. I have about 80 plants, but not all in the same part of the house so I think I have to treat about 20-25. I have the weekend off so I will take an inventory tomorrow AM and then go to work. I looked up imidacloprid and that sounds doable if I'm careful. The MSDS sheet says it is very hazardous to birds and insects (Duh!) and you have to be careful applying it but I will go with that instead of Orthene if the first part doesn't work.
I want to get my plants looking good for our society's show at the end of February, and I certainly don't want my plants to infect other peoples.

[dounoharm]

if you spray inside, put the plants in a big plastic garbage bag and spray away....gl

[Connie Star]

Well I carefully inspected about half my plants and needed to treat 12. I've isolated them from the others. The other half I will check/treat tomorrow. I used Safer soap, rinsed it off and then pyrethrin spray. The main problem is mealy bugs.

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by Connie Star

Well I carefully inspected about half my plants and needed to treat 12. I've isolated them from the others. The other half I will check/treat tomorrow. I used Safer soap, rinsed it off and then pyrethrin spray. The main problem is mealy bugs.

Connie, when you spray with horticultural oil, do it in your yard somewhere. Don't get it on anything because it will leave an oily stain that's hard to remove. I once sprayed on a concrete patio and had an oily mark on the patio for about a year. I find it very effective though.

[Connie Star]

I checked the rest of my plants today and found some more pests (all 3). As a bonus, I found 4 of my plants were in spike that I hadn't noticed before. I guess I need to pay closer attention.