Uh-oh... Found a fat old mealybug!!!!

[Leafmite]

Yes, there is a safe way to clean off mealies and scale. You take cotton swabs and cotton balls, a toothpick and isopropyl alcohol and you carefully clean them off. This is what I do now. Every week, I look over the plants and try to find them all. My plants are in the home, in our living area, so I cannot use other means until summer.

[Vanda lover]

I just add about a tsp of cinnamon extract [grocery store] a little alcohol and a few squirts of hand soap or dish soap to a spray bottle. another option is hot peppers and garlic with water put through the blender, strained through a coffee filter and a few drops of soap. I always have pets and would never use the strong stuff, except maybe outside. But I find this works. The first one smells nice. Peppermint extract also helps.

[violetta]

Originally Posted by cbuchman

Like Rosie, I am just diligent with "bug patrols." I think the source is often my non-orchidacious plants. So I am even more diligent with those and much more aggressive with them as well usually using a systemic pesticide as well even though I find it isn't perfect.

^^ That's it.
I became tired using alcohol and green soap etc, so I sprayed my non-orchidacious plants with imidacloprid, which is a systemic pesticide (you can also water plants with it). Every bug died and i no longer see 1-2 of them on my orchids

[Paul Mc]

Orchidsarefun, it was that big!!! I can't say I've ever seen one that big and plump. Made me wonder if it wasn't pregnant to be honest. And with the music in the background, even Mrs. Bates would have been horrified! LOL...

[Paul Mc]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I will look into them and try to keep up on this problem. I've been looking the orchids in that window over now daily for any signs.

[31drew31]

Originally Posted by Ferns Daddy

Is there some thing safe to use around pets, my Chihuahua likes to sit on the window shelf with my orchids to watch the world go by she won't bother the plants but like to sit up there in the sun, so I want to use something safe

Q-tips and 70% isopropyl alcohol work well if you have a small collection and are diligent with it. I have also used neem oil on scale and mealies. You want the raw stuff that needs to be warmed a bit. Mix to directions on the bottle. I have used triple strength on a few orchids and Nepenthes with no side effects other than dead bugs.

Neem oil is safe with pets, but doesn't have the nicest of smells. Kind of a mix between old peanut butter and garlic.

[Connie Star]

I've been fighting with mealies for over a year now. I think they're gone and they reappear. I really have more orchids than I have time or space for- I have a big house, so time is the real issue. I've taken a 4 pronged approach. Alcohol first. I buy the alcohol wipes that are used to clean skin before injections. They have the advantage that you can fold them up small and slide them between leaves and sheaths. Next step is Safer soap which is non-toxic to pets and people- dries your hands, though. Next, pyrethrin spray which is hard to control in the house. Last, and only in the summer, outside imidclopid. They really seem to love phals and paphs. I've yet to see one on another of my house plants.

[Leafmite]

Connie, I have been going over my plants and orchids once a week and I keep finding them! Gosh, I hope after the upcoming summer, I never see them again!

[Paul Mc]

Oh my, sounds like they could a persistent little problem then!!! My eagle eyes are in the lookout now several times a day then!

[Orchidreamer]

I keep finding mealies everywhere! I found mealies lodged in the crooks of my coelogyne's leaves. I found one crawling and squirming on a new leaf of my dendrobium. Then it seems like scale and mealies tend to occur together for some reason. I've already gone through nearly two bottles of insecticides this summer. It's insane. It all started when I bought some infected plants from a vendor. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late and the critters had already spread. Urgh.