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

[Paul Mc]

I was doing my usual weekly watering, pruning and inspections when I found a big mealybug on one of my starter orchids. And I mean it was huge!!! I've not seen one that fat before!

It was lodged between two leaves so I took a knife in and killed it. There was still some white stuff left so I took a q-tip with alcohol and cleaned off the area.

I'm actually just devastated by this. I know how quickly they can grow into a problem. I fought an outbreak of mites last winter and nearly lost a few, so this was disheartening....

I intend to remove the plant from the media and inspect it thoroughly for any more buggies. Anything else I should do in your opinions? I don't want to see this wipe out my collection. The last mealybug infected thing I had croaked and it was a worse battle than the mites. Obviously, I lost that battle last time...