Help pest or mesophyll collapse?

[LizB88]

Hello, I'm new member, I'm not new to having orchid, but still a novice. I need help identifying and treating one of my new orchids. I got this Pahl at a discount from a florist ($5.00) because the flowers stem was broken. After using florist tape on the stem, the flowers open, and they look great. However, when cleaning the leafs, I notice the underside of one of the leaf to be damage. This is the only leaf, but I don't know what could it be. I thought that maybe mesophyll collapse, but I thought that would show on the upper part of the leaf.
Thank you for all your help.

[Island Girl]

This is mite damage. You should separate it from the rest of your orchids, so they don't move to greener pastures. You will need a miticide (something that specifically says it kills mites), and is safe for "Ornamental" plants, and follow instructions on the bottle. You will need to reapply as often as it says to on the bottle, so that when the eggs hatch it will kill the newcomers as well. Good Luck! I hate mites... They're evil!

[LizB88]

Mary Linn- thank you, I got some today, and I will do as directed. I will also apply to the other orchids as well, I did not isolate this plant before bringing it in to the house.

[Island Girl]

You're very welcome! I've had mites... Took me awhile to figure out what it was, and in the meantime, they were eating all my plants! My orchids were outside on a screened in porch, and the fig tree beside the porch was infested... Made it very hard to fight! And I lost a few seedlings and a couple mature orchids b4 I got rid of them. So, you have to stay on top of treatment... but it could be a long fight, sometimes they r hard to eradicate Good Luck! I hope u kill them all! muahahaha

[LizB88]

Thank you, I did check the other orchids and sprayed them as a preventive method, so far no signs of having them on other plants.

This is the first time for me dealing with mites, and it seems that they are worse to get rid of then aphids. I'm fighting them too on my lotus plant's!

And this morning I found one of my cats nibbling on my first Dendrobium, "Spring Dream Apolon" got it as a b-day present. She went for the new leaf. So I don't know who will be harder to combat, the mites, aphids or my cat!