What are these white things?

[Brooke]

These are mealie bugs not mites. If you are treating mites with a home remedy they will come back because you haven't eliminated them. A mite requires a specific agent called miticide to kill them.

Valorie I'm not sure your mealies are dead. A dead mealie is a tannish/greyish color. As Carrie said, alcohol in a spray bottle is the fastest way to kill them. The infestation you have is very heavy and if using a contact insecticide instead of a systemic you will have to spray for a long time to kill them all. Even a systemic should be applied two or three times. I would also treat anything that was very close to this plant.

Brooke

[Orchid Whisperer]

With systemic controls that are targeted for insects, the insects don't come back, IME. I imagine if you over-used such chemicals, a chemical tolerance could be developed.

Bear in mind that an insecticide is different from a miticide, biology is sufficiently different that the insecticides don't always work on mites.

---------- Post added at 05:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 PM ----------

I didn't see Brooke's post before I posted, but yes, I pretty much agree.

[kindrag23]

Originally Posted by Bud

Try my mixture:

1 teaspoon liquid cinnamon extract (you can find this in the spice section of the supermarket)=helps disinfect and helps rule out bacteria and fungi infestation = the mites have this sharp teeth that punctures the plant to suck its sap and sometimes bacteria and fungi gets in.

10 drops liquid dish soap (get the anti bacterial ones)

2 cups tepid water from the hot water in the sink


put it in a plastic sprayer, shake well and spray the plant until it is drenched....make sure the media mix is also drenched to nuke the eggs....repeat weekly until you don't see them anymore....

do this for a couple of months....especially if you see them come back.

you must be relentless....they will come back.

---------- Post added at 11:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 PM ----------

I dont know but when I spray mosquitos, cockroaches, flies = they fall dead upon contact with the spray this is safe for mammals, children and pets....

I have heard wonderful things on this remedy, and am getting ready to use it myself for possible fungi...AND IF IT KILLS COCKROACHES I AM ALL FOR IT!! I also have a dog with a plastic fetish so I always have to be careful with what I spray.

Thanks for re posting this Bud

[Dave S.]

I would remove all the dead/mostly dead mealy bugs from your plant after you spray them. You want to make sure you do not see new white mealybugs. I would inspect your plant daily for awhile.

[ValorieBoyer]

So, after monitoring the infected plant and using the rubbing alcohol spray and cotton ball method, I think I had a handle on the problem...but tonight I found a large one on one of my plants on the top shelf. How it got there from the infected one on the bottom one I have no clue...these guys fly maybe? I'll be doing a spot check on everybody for a while and am going to work faster on designing my wardian case...which will have multiple sections now.


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[The Orchidist]

Can someone explain where these little creatures come from in the first place ?. is it from moving your plant outdoors in the summer and one of them gets an egg from some other bug or what ?. i have seen them before but only on an oncidium .

[ValorieBoyer]

I got mine from an infected plant I brought home, I should have quarantined it for the full two weeks that's recommended but I got impatient...


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[RosieC]

When I got them it was on a new plant I had just bought. It probably means they were in the nursery who sold it.

As Valorie has found they can spread from plant to plant once you have them.