Anyone tried Bayer Advanced Natria?

[Orchid Whisperer]

I had scale suddenly appear over the winter on a few plants. Probably due to some hitch-hikers that I didn't see when inspecting some new arrivals.

I have been using Bayer Advanced Rose & Flower with Imidacloprid, and that seems to be controlling things pretty well. I will likely continue spraying my plants with Bayer Advanced Rose & Flower for at least a month (hey, I was going to just use the acronym, but "spraying my plants with BARF" just sounds wrong).

I do believe in rotating chemicals so that pests don't build up a tolerance. I have a neem-based product, and may use that after the month is over.

But, I have seen the Bayer Natria product offered, and it is labeled for mealies, scale, and mites. Active ingredients are sulfur and pyrethrins, so I assume this would be a contact poison only. Has anyone used this? The pest I am managing now is scale, but mealies have been a problem in the past. No issues with mites yet (knock on wood). Just wondering if this is a good choice to rotate to after the Neem. I will probably rotate back to the BARF (yeah, still sounds wrong) or Bayer 3-in-1 later in the year.

Any advice appreciated.

[ALToronto]

Natria sounds like it has sodium in it - not sure how harmful it would be if it got on the roots. I'd contact Bayer for clarification.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Just wondering where you heard about the sodium? The only active ingredients they list are the sulfur and pyrethrins I mentioned.

[ALToronto]

Natrium is what sodium is called in pretty much every language other than English, including Latin.

[lotis146]

It's called Natria & it has a little leaf next to the title. My understanding is that there aim here is to appeal to the "natural" side of things while not being entirely organic.

This is ironic because I just bought some today due to what I posted earlier discovering very small, less than pin-head sized round bugs. I understand that these might be a form of scale but I've not been able to figure out for sure. This plant I got Saturday. Then I got another Tolumnia today in the mail with what I think are mites. I wanted to do something stronger but I have birds and I can't risk bringing them in and any odor being apparent. I will use stronger when I can leave out all day.

But I doused them with this Natria spray and left outside for over an hour before temps got 52 F. The mites were already hard to spot but not seeing them now under flashlight. HOWEVER, the little beetles I still see a few, not as many but I didn't see them before either. They seem to disappear after spraying with water before the Natria. Worse yet as I stupidly (well not really because they're both infected plants but diff bugs) put them out next to each other, the little black bugs have migrated to the plant with the mites! I just picked about four off. I'm worried that they migrated so quickly.

Point being, the Natria doesn't seem to have killed 100% of them if any at all. The mites, I can't say definitively but the black bugs, yeah they're still present. I almost think it scared them off.

That's just what I know for now. Good luck.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Lotis, thanks for your comment!

It sounds like the Natria Advanced is not too effective. I started a similar thread on the Orchidgeeks site, someone there said that the Natria stained their plant's leaves(?)

ALToronto, looking around more on the web, there seems to be more than one "Natria", so I think Lotis may be right - sounds just a bit more environmentally friendly (gotta love marketing).

Lotis, I saw your post on the beetles, if I had to guess, I would be guessing those are flea beetles. They eat all kinds of holes in eggplant leaves. I have never seen them on orchids before. Maybe the aren't flea beetles, but they look like them. I hope the pesticides kill them, or at least send them elsewhere.

[lotis146]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

Lotis, thanks for your comment!

It sounds like the Natria Advanced is not too effective. I started a similar thread on the Orchidgeeks site, someone there said that the Natria stained their plant's leaves(?)

ALToronto, looking around more on the web, there seems to be more than one "Natria", so I think Lotis may be right - sounds just a bit more environmentally friendly (gotta love marketing).

Lotis, I saw your post on the beetles, if I had to guess, I would be guessing those are flea beetles. They eat all kinds of holes in eggplant leaves. I have never seen them on orchids before. Maybe the aren't flea beetles, but they look like them. I hope the pesticides kill them, or at least send them elsewhere.

Thank you!

It's funny really because I wouldn't say that it's ineffective because today I definitely didn't see as many of the beetle like bugs (other commenters on my various threads about this think this is a form of soil mite that might not be so harmless). But imagine this, I think I found one, but a lot smaller (hope it wasn't something else) on one of my "other" group in different room from newbies (okay open floor plan about 15+ feet away). Maybe it's that this spray just didn't KILL them right away, but they definitely ran away from it and right onto another plant I sprayed along with it outside. SO they WERE bothered. I sprayed one of my older Paphs with it today because I think its got some fungus going on in the medium (my fault, think it's potted too big, too deep). It might still be worth it. I'll check the pot again tomorrow, it could be like I said that they're a little more resilient. Also if they're not mites then this might not be the product for them, they might not be a problem (but I think they r). Wait...I'll check it now... I only saw one tucked under a root, mind you this plant has no media. Oh and there is a very, very mild lingering odor if you get up on the plant and smell it. (Only matters to me because of my birds.)

What do you mean by stained the leaf?

As you probably already know, it does say that it treats scale. I will say I haven't seen the "other" mites on the other plant, maybe they went in hiding but...then again, the seller checked their other plants under microscope and said that they saw 2 diff kinds of mites and they're actually harmless! So, just to add to the confusion!

Good luck with your scale. Keep us posted if you use natria after all and it works for the scale or if you use something else. I hope you get it resolved one way or another. It appealed to me because it's stronger than the straight organic stuff (apparently) but it's not as harmful as the SUPER stuff.

Best to ya!