It has been a while since I posted, so a little background. I have about 40 orchids, mainly phals, that are mostly NOIDS and big box purchases. I have a couple of special ones that I love because they rebloom often for me or are a great color. I live in NW Georgia, and those happy faces on Phals get me through my winter blues
I have had a few mealybugs on some, and I usually clean them off as I see them with alcohol. But I was just doing battle, and now it is time for WAR!!
We have a new screened in porch, so this summer I moved most of my orchids to shelving out there so this lovely Georgia heat and humidity could do some good for a change. We have had lots of rain, and they have shown a lot of growth...epecially the air roots. They do not get rained on, do not get direct sun, but are more crowded than they ought to be, and that has led to an EXPLOSION of mealy bugs. I have tried to keep up with cleaning them with alcohol, and have also used a pesticide spray on them. But we just came home from a week of vacation and I find the little buggers EVERYWHERE on my orchids. Grrrrrrr.
I imagine that I have never really completely eradicated the population, and they must also thrive in the heat and humidity. There is some damage to some leaves, and some of the plants do not look very healthy.
So I am declaring war!! My current tactic is divide and conquer. I brought in a few of them, and have cleaned them in the sink with water and alcohol. I dumped the bark into a compost bin and have scrubbed the pots they were in. I am going to run the pots through the dishwasher. These little things hide EVERYWHERE. They were in creases of the leaves, down in the crown, inside flower clips, down in the bark, under the lip of the pot, and down inside the decorative pots that the inner pots sit in. I cleaned off all the roots of any remaining bark and cut off all dead roots.
For these four orchids, I have put them in water with a pinch of orchid fertilizer until I can make sure the bugs are conquered. I am going to make inside the house a mealybug-free zone. Already today I have gone back and found other little ones that crawled out of cracks and crevices that I had missed earlier. They will not be going back to the porch with their friends. I plan to keep monitoring and doing what I can to the porch plants, but will really focus on these inside. As I get these back to being healthy and bug free, I will repot them in CLEAN pots with new medium. And slowly bring in the outside ones, doin the same thing.
Like I said, these are not really expensive plants, but I do get a kick out of getting them to rebloom and watching them grow. If I have to, I guess I will throw them away, but I sure don't want to.
How do large greenhouses and growers deal with them?? They can't go plant by plant cleaning like I have been doing.
I am posting today to share my FRUSTRATION and ANGER at these stupid bugs!!!
And looking for some encouragement. And some suggestions. I have searched through the board and found several helpful hints. Today was the first time I have actually thrown out any medium, and was shocked at how many bugs were hidden.
Anyone out there that has successfully won this war?
Have a bloomin' good day!
Ann
Mealybugs vs Me...all out WAR!!!
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