Use of sunflower oil

[orchidsarefun]

I experimented, after finding an article on the internet, by adding roughly a teaspoon of oil into a Dr Bronner Peppermint soap/ water mix in a spray bottle. I suppose the oil acts as a "surfactant" as well as a contact insecticide ? I sprayed the plant thoroughly, including all leaf undersides ( yep, I am aware of potential transpiration issues by doing that ). The plant gets at least 3 hours of South-facing sun every day.
This was about 3 months back.
See current photo. The leaves still appear glossy ( its an oncid, btw - and can take sun ) and appear undamaged.
My questions - has anyone else tried this ? What were the results ? If the leaves are glossy/oily, does this mean that they are still protected against mites ? I mention mites because I lost a few plants to a mite infestation last year - and now they're gone...

[tucker85]

That's a very healthy looking orchid. I use a product called Organicide which is sesame oil. Those types of products are known as horticultural oils. I've had good results with it. The oil basically smothers the insects and their eggs. It takes awhile but eventually it wears off. I'm not sure how long it takes. The insects are killed with the initial spraying of the oil. There might be a little bit of residual effect but probably not much. Horticultural oil is especially effective on mites but it kills many other insects also. Like any other insect killing product, it's a good idea to use it a second time, 7-10 days after the first dose. Both horticultural oil and insecticide soaps are good ways to kill insects without using poison. Martin Motes, in his book about growing orchids in Florida, recommends using an insecticide oil and a week later, using an insecticide soap to kill any eggs that are hatching and at the same time it helps wash the oil off. Both soaps and oils don't hurt plants but one caution is that oils magnify light. So if your orchid is in a bright location, during the summertime, and you spray oil on the leaves, there's a possibility of burning the leaves. At this time of year there isn't any problem at all.