Mealybugs vs Me...all out WAR!!!

[Phal in love]

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

[katrina]

Sounds like you really need to do a systemic insecticide.

Because of the overwhelming infestation...I would repot all into fresh medium and clean pots. Be sure to remove all old medium and it wouldn't hurt to wash them w/a mild soapy solution and then rinse well before repotting.

After that...do the systemic and then repeat the spray in 7-10 days just in case you missed some eggs in the repot/clean process.

After that 2nd spray keep a close eye on things and if you see anymore then I'd continue w/the systemic as long as you can have them outside.

[orchidsarefun]

don't be too disappointed if you get one or two recurring every few weeks. I am amazed at their life-cycle and at how resilient they are. The only good thing about them is that they are easy to spot !

[Phal in love]

Thanks for your responses. I have been using a spray and alcohol, but I think I will go purchase a systemic today. Bayer Tree and Shrub seems to be what most are recommending...? After thoroughly cleaning the ones I brought in yesterday, I still found more last night and this morning. It is hard to get down into the base of a leaf without damaging it. I plan to repot, but want to make sure they are GONE before I do. Green water therapy has worked well before when they are not in bark and need some tlc.

I worry that I may cause them to get off schedule with reblooming by bringing them out of the heat and humidity and into the air conditioning!

[NYCorchidman]

Commercial growers spray on a regular basis and if there is a outbreak, then they spray to kill on contact and systemic.

With thousands of orchids in the greenhouse, there might still be some bugs as I see them hitchhike into my house on a few purchases over the years. lol

I thought mealy bugs on phals were easy to get rid of as phals only have so much place for them to hide. I guess I'm wrong.

I had mealy bugs on one phal I bought from a supermarket. There were a few at the back of flowers. I hand picked them all and then never saw any more.

Then I got this dendrobium from a society meeting last month. As pretty as it looked with lots of pretty pink flowers, upon closer look, I found the entire plant, leaves and flowers and everything, were just covered with mealy bugs. I was so shocked to see so many and the plant look so fine from a distance.

I have many plants in the apartment, so I had to do something right away.
I shooked off as many bugs as I could, then handpicked with a toothpick, then soaked the entire plant in a soapy water.
It seemed like most were dropped off the plant.
Well, about two days after this treatment, all the flowers and leaves dropped. lol

I still saw the bugs. There were just a few here and there but they were in small crevice and crack between the cane and leaves, which is very hard for me to reach and catch them.

The plant is growing some new shoots that are clean, but I think some bugs are still hiding in some cracks on older canes.
It is still isolated and I wonder if I want to go systemic just for this one small orchid or just pitch before it spreads to other orchids.

I wish you all the luck!

[Brooke]

You can use regular alcohol in a spray bottle and spray the plant thoroughly. The alcohol will seep into every crack and crevice and kill any live mealies. Be sure to pay attention to the blooms because they love hiding in the pollen and lip area. They will also lay eggs in the nodes of the spike.

Then treat with the systemic but still watch for any just hatching out. It takes a few days for the product to be absorbed so always keep the alcohol bottle handy for instant death.

Repeat the systemic one week later.

Ann the secret to winning the war is to eliminate them as fast as possible. You need to be treating all of your plants not just the ones in the house. Baby mealies can be distributed in a breeze as you walk by and then reinfect the house 'chids.

Brooke

[NYCorchidman]

Baby mealies can be distributed via air like baby scales???

Now I really want to dump out my dendrobium just in case. not worth to ruin my entire collection.

[jeremyinsf]

Yes. I had an infected plant sitting next to a fan once, and you could see the path of the wind, where all the little babies went! No fun. They don't fly, but they can get caught up in air very easy.

Can you isolate this plant?

[NYCorchidman]

Dang it, I've been using a fan the whole month of July in my apartment. I think if there were any hiding hatchlings, they could have landed everywhere!

Noooooo!!!!!!!

Dang, I just found (and killed) five small mealies on the spike of an oncidium I bought this week.

I am under mealy attack now.

[dounoharm]

SYSTEMIC INSECTICIDE is the only way to win the war...all greenhouses and major growers use it...follow the directions...spray the affected plants COMPLETELY COVERING EVERY CRACK AND CREVICE...an insecticide regime is very important! alcohol and home remedies just will not be of any effect with a widespread infestation of mealies or scale....I spray every two weeks alternating with systemic of some sort, doesn't matter what, and insecticidal soap/seven mixture....if I find a bug, I use the systemic every week for 3 weeks straight! there are NO BUGS in my greenhouse...not tolerated at all....don't mess around with treating one or two plants either, take them en mass, all of them at once and treat them....replace repot respray....and you will be successful...gl