New broad mite discovered

[Matorchid]

Hello All,

It's been awhile since last post but I thought that this deserved some of my time to post.

Well over the past couple of months I have been having some issues with my orchids, not looking or acting in the way I think they should be. At first I was thinking bacterial or fungal all the way to thinking it was viral. I stopped by my local hydro store to maybe find yet another product I can try to rectify the problem. I have become quite well known in this store to owners as well as the regular customers as they know I grow orchids instead of other things. I was explaining my plight and frustration of some of the issues concerning my plants. And do you know the store referred me to a gentleman in the corner that was looking at some supplies for his personal plants. After a long discussion with this person he revealed to me that there was a new broad mite that was discovered or has just recently been seen that seems to show the same kinds of damage as a bacterial or viral infection, he specifically pointed out the damage looking like TMV or tobacco mosaic virus and ringspot virus. Now while my plants didn't show signs of by viral infection they did have some weird things happening to him like curling of leaves and weird markings appearing for no reason. He also told me that new growth with was highly affected and buds and flowers were also highly affected by this so-called new broad mite. I guess this is hit the hemp and houseplant industry quite hard.So after my discussion with him, and really no remedy, I decided to come home and look this stuff up and found several articles on this pest but none of the articles seem to mention orchids. All the articles seemed relatively new from 2011 2012 I have posted a link on this page to one such article.

Examining Broad Mites | Progressive Options

I was just wondering if anybody had heard of this in our community and If anyone has any kind of other information on this pest that they can pass out. It would be greatly appreciated by myself as well as most of our orchid community.
Well I'm still reading, hope to hear some information on it thank you, y'all have a good night

[katrina]

Broad mites are not a new insect. They've been a problem for the food industry for quite a long time.

They are no more or less a problem than spider mites for those of us growing any type of houseplants. They are a tropical/sub-tropical pest so you won't find them on landscapes in northern climates but they love, love, love greenhouse environments. Our warm homes are also perfect environments.

Control methods are the same as what you would use for spider mites.

[Matorchid]

Thank you for your reply Katrina. I am aware that broad mites are not a new past that we're dealing with. The way I understand it though is that the behavior of this broad might is much different. Instead of I guess sucking the sap from the surface of the cells this broad mite actually digs itself into the cell and suck I t from the inside. And I'm sure there are plenty variations of broad mites and spider mites. I just guess the behavior of this one warranted a warning to everyone I don't know why, but I'm trying to find more information out about this pest. Also from what was explain to me is that this particular broad mite is immune to some of the normal pesticides that we all use.

[orchidsarefun]

not to change the subject but I had more of a problem with so-called bulb mites. It took a visit to the Univ Ag Ext office and pictures and e-mails to identify them. Even an AOS expert couldn't ! There is a lot of data on these on the internet - all by marijuana growers. I tried every type of pesticide and even now I still see an occasional one. They are visible to the naked eye and move extremely rapidly - I thought at first that this broadmite topic was maybe related until I read that the broadmites are not visible. In fact they were so plentiful that I was pinching them off my plants and feeding them, live, to my butterworts. They were also so aggressive that I could put my finger on the side of a pot and they would fake charge it !
I still don't know if they were feeding off my plants, problem is that they have a piercing proboscis- or what looks like one - and so I couldn't take the chance. I also don't know what finally got rid of most of them - the pesticide/s, or the pesticide/s killing off what they were feeding on. Very puzzling, but interesting......nobody else had heard of them on orchids !

[katrina]

Originally Posted by Matorchid

The way I understand it though is that the behavior of this broad might is much different. Instead of I guess sucking the sap from the surface of the cells this broad mite actually digs itself into the cell and suck I t from the inside. And I'm sure there are plenty variations of broad mites and spider mites.

There are many different species of mites and I believe there is some confusion occurring in your information as broad mites (to the best of my knowledge) are not ones that burrow. When I grew Amaryllis I read about a "bulb" mite that burrowed into the bulbs in the Fall as protection against cool temps...perhaps that's what people are talking about. I've never heard of a broad mite burrowing into plant material. ??

Again...there are many, many different species of mites and some are beneficial. There is a red mite I see often in the spring/early summer that is visible to the human eye...super fast...and for years I thought they were harmful but after a few years I found out these were actually "beneficials". They eat the bad mites! And all those years I was killing them. [sigh]

Anyway...my understanding of broad mites is that they are susceptible to the same insecticides as other mites. Again, I think the information is being confused w/the "bulb" mites as those are impossible to control once they've burrowed into the bulbs. I can't remember the "official" name for the bulb mites...I just remember "bulb".

I know we have some insect experts on the forum so hopefully someone will see this and chime in to help clear up the confusion.

[NYCorchidman]

What do broadmites look like if they are visible??

I have seen these tiny little red specks on some of my orchids (affected ones in the past were oncidium related group, miltoniopsis, dendrobium).
They only show up on very underwatered plants that I normally end up tossing anyways but am curious what they are.

They are much much smaller than red spider mites and I doubt most people can see that they are there unless you look really really closely to the plant (even then they just look like a fine little dust that most people wont' even see or think it's part of the palnt tissue).

I first discovered their presence on one of my oncidiums as there were just so many. I thought they were dust. I took a very close look and was amazed they were slowly moving around. You cannot see the legs or anything but just tiniest little reddish speck you can see.

They don't make webs. Also they can apparently travel in the air because I only find them on very underwatered plants no matter where the plants are in the apartment.

The damage done is similar to the spider mite damage but less severe. You don't see the damage from the upperside of the leaves but only on the underside.

Any idea??

[Matorchid]

I got some pics of what I'm dealing with but I can't find what it is. My local hydro store doesn't have a clue. I'm wondering if it cause of the brown spots all over my plants. These things are in and on the media, that I have seen. I saw a red translucent one on my bolopetalum plant about 2 months ago. They seem to not be effected by the moisture or humidity, as you can see. It was physan day so media is unusually wet in pics.Plz can anyone tell me these are. I've been dealing with this for like 5months. I've used the cinnamon water, natria(bayer)3in1, natria(bayer)insecticidal soap, Safer insecticidal soap, Azamax, Bonide don't bug me, and couple of others that can't remember the name. But have been very religous about using this stuff. Every 7 days no mater what. All plants are now in a bedroom to control humidity better .
I really need to figure what to do or what use.
Thank you all for your input.

[Matorchid]

Another

[Matorchid]

2

[MrHappyRotter]

Okay, not to sound like a Neem salesman, or somoene whose financial portfolio in heavily invested in 'Big Neem', have you tried Neem?

For diseases, it works best as a preventative. But, I'm finding it to be effective treatment for inverts as well as fungi and bacteria.

Not that I'm saying Neem is without it's risks, but thought it might be worth a mention in the context of pest and disease control.