pest ID/treatment

[FinnBar]

help!

i noticed yesterday my Aerangis mooreana is hosting some sort of pests. it's growing mounted on a piece of compressed cork, so har i haven't found them elsewhere.

they're white and tiny, smaller than a grain of sand. my guess is they enjoy high humidity considering the conditions of my tank.
any help would be highly appreciated.

[Ross]

Try this post http://www.orchidboard.com/community...errariums.html I was having problems with darker colored flies but I noticed that the young ones are whitish. Maybe yours also?

[FinnBar]

whitish, yes. the fact that i haven't found them on the actual plant, just the mount would support your diagnosis.
though i must elaborate they aren't flying anywhere, right?
mine look like tiny moving grains of sand.
did you get rid of them somehow? i just sprayed with neem oil/washing deturgent solution

[Ross]

I have not gotten rid of mine. Since I read they really only go after algae (including algal growth on the leaves and mounts) I decided to not do anything. I did try canola oil on one mount that had lots of these guys (both adults and little white ones) and it did nothing. I plan to just monitor the situation and see what happens.

No flight, only running around. The teeny ones move slowly, the winged adults run quite fast, but no flight.

[FinnBar]

very likely we're talking about the same thing. i think isopropyl alcohol worked when i applied it yesterday but i happened to run out so i couldn't repeat it for now.

[FinnBar]

actually, i'll take that back. unfortunately after a more thorough search i found them on my biloba and a Phal too. not only on a mount but on the biloba roots too. the Phal is growing in S/H.. what could it be?