Mites found in moss bark mix!!

[greenpassion]

I have about half my orchids in S/H, and the rest in an orchid mix with spag moss. Recently I discovered tiny dark brown (or black?) mites crawling around the lip of an miniature orchid container that is in S/H!! I was stunned. I thought that the S/H media couldn't sustain insect life... I took the mini phal out of the S/H, cleaned up the few viable roots it has, and put it in fresh moss on a heat mat.
That said, I moved onto discover that I also have them living in the mixes my other phals are in. I sprayed with Safer Soap, as that's all I have here, and really need to know if Safer Soap is even what I need to use. In addition, do I have to repot every one of these orchids? Can I safely saturate the medium with what ever you guys recommend??

[james mickelso]

Are they mites or springtails? Makes a difference. Mites are bad guys for sure. Springtails are fairly innocuous. Just spray the mites with a miticide.

[greenpassion]

They are definitely mites. What kind of mitecide should I use?

[RosieC]

Just a warning that mites can be really hard to get rid of. I've had them in S/H ones as well.

In the UK chemicals that can get rid of them are not available so easily, so I can't really advice on that.

[james mickelso]

look at bayer complete.

[greenpassion]

Thank you all for your help. Got the "measurement for dummies" on SucraShield, and I'm crossing my fingers!

[lotis146]

Originally Posted by greenpassion

I have about half my orchids in S/H, and the rest in an orchid mix with spag moss. Recently I discovered tiny dark brown (or black?) mites crawling around the lip of an miniature orchid container that is in S/H!! I was stunned. I thought that the S/H media couldn't sustain insect life... I took the mini phal out of the S/H, cleaned up the few viable roots it has, and put it in fresh moss on a heat mat.
That said, I moved onto discover that I also have them living in the mixes my other phals are in. I sprayed with Safer Soap, as that's all I have here, and really need to know if Safer Soap is even what I need to use. In addition, do I have to repot every one of these orchids? Can I safely saturate the medium with what ever you guys recommend??

Do your mites look like super tiny little shiny black beetles?

I have a couple of threads looking for help with this now. I just got a plant Saturday and found them on it today. After spraying with Bayer Natria they crawled to another plant that I believed to have little gray mites (they were a lot smaller than the springtails I've seen but now I've found springtails on my Paph 'Pink Fred' and they're all different sizes). I maybe killed the new guys springtails but the little black bugs are still present even after spraying.

Is this what you had (not my pic, found online):

[RosieC]

Lotis, I've seen ones like your tiny tiny black beetles in the past. I too would like to know what they are.

Where did you find the pic?

---------- Post added at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 AM ----------

I should say those in that pic are not like the spider mites I've had problems with, but I think there are all sorts of mites, so they could still be mites.

The tiny black ones I have seen also seemed to like water, where spidermites don't.

[Ray]

Mites - if that's truly what they are (do they have 8 legs?) - must have living tissue to suck juices out of. That would be the plant, mosses or mold, and not the medium.

[gravotrope]

Well since you just sprayed with Safer's Insect Soap you should be aware that for the ones in s/h you could apply it for the second time a little sooner than for the ones in pots or baskets. Soap tends to dry things out so your application needs to be every 7-10 days on your potted plants. You should do at least three applications since there is a heavy infestation.

Alternatively, one advantage to soaking your plants (though I guess the water in Vermont is still pretty cold) is it forces a lot of bugs out of the medium. This is why a lot of people dunk their plants. I used to do it a lot more and now on occasion I do it to force the springtails out of my Tolumnias.