Root tips disappearing - chewed off!

[My Green Pets]

My plants have been outside all summer and in the last couple of weeks the pest damage has really started getting out of control. Every plant with actively growing roots is losing its root tips to some hungry creature. From my vanda hung in the tree to the phals in plastic pots, if there's a root growing, the tip has been eaten off.

All plants have been sprayed with spectricide 3-in-1 every other day and I sprinkled coffee grounds (supposed to deter slugs?) all around the pots sitting on tables. I'm not quite sure what I'm fighting but I'm losing this battle so far.

Now several plants are spiking and if I walk outside to find my vanda or bulbo or paph with a chewed-off stump instead of a spike, I may just have to nuke the whole eastern United States to kill those varmints.

Any idea what I might be dealing with?

[NYCorchidman]

Pictures??

Root tip damage is most often due to the snails and slugs, but I'm not sure how they would jump on your hanging vandas. lol

I read that cockroaches and grasshoppers also eat orchid roots.

Why don't you get a flash light and check the plants at night to see any big bugs like roaches are doing the damage?

I'd be so angry to have such damage on more than one plant.

By looking at the way the damage is done on the roots, you can sort of figure out what was eating the roots.


Also, do you have lots of sparrows in the area?
They can damage plants of pretty much any kind they find edible.

[orchidsarefun]

my orchids on ground level have similar damage - and its due to slugs.....I know because I did the flashlight-night-stalk. I bought some slug-killer pellets, but even with those I have to regularly kill those hiding under the pots. I wouldn't risk leaving spiking plants outdoors, though for some reason my zygo spikes seem to be ok so far.
If you have leaf damage too, then its definitely slugs.

[tarev]

Could be slugs...it did that to my Oncidium and Zygo..so I dug into the media, found the little monsters!

[NYCorchidman]

But what about his hanging vanda roots??

[MrHappyRotter]

It's chupacabras. They just love orchid roots for some reason.

But seriously, there are just too many culprits, you've really got to look for some evidence.

If slugs or snails are causing the damage, there should be obvious slime trails. You can try the beer trick, which involves pouring some beer into a shallow container. It attracts slugs & snails, who then get drunk and drown. You might also consider placing copper wire around the legs of your table/stand to prevent them from slithering up.

Roaches, crickets, and katydids are typical nocturnal root munchers. Standard insecticides should do the trick on those, but most of the common stuff will not prevent them from chewing on roots. Pesticides really only kill the ones that do the munching, and a lot of times, only after they have sampled some plant material.

I'd suggest doing a couple of late night inspections to see if you can't catch some critter(s) in the act so to speak. This way you can tailor your defense/response to the specific critter.

Keep in mind that slugs, snails, roaches, crickets, and katydids are the most common culprits, but are not an exhaustive list. There are lots of other things that could be causing your problem. It might be caterpillars. Could be rodents. The list really does go on.

[My Green Pets]

I found some Spectracide Snail & Slug Killer and sprinkled it everywhere tonight. We shall see. The product is many years old so I don't know if the active ingredient is still good, but the product certainly stinks!

[reliablefool]

All I know is I want to kill the squirrels near me...they keep eating new growth! :'( Haven't noticed any roots/root tips disappearing due to them though.

[LovePhals]

I am having the same issue, the new roots on my Oncidium are going... one by one... I also have holes in my Christmas Cactus leaves so I am thinking caterpillars? I am going to wrap the bottom of my outdoor rack to be sure it isn't snails!

[Daethen]

I have been so lucky (knock on wood). Mine have been outside for the last 3 summers and I have had almost no problem with pests. I have used the 3 in 1 systemic this year at least once a month as I had some scale before they went out. But aside from 2 caterpillars and a couple of huge spiders complete with city sized webs I have had no intruders. Have seen a few grasshoppers in the veggie garden but they haven't decided to come to the shade house so far. Good luck with your pest troubles!