Is it possible to be 100% bug free?

[Plodde]

I was watering my orchids today and i was looking in the pots and to my horror, ( well... kind of. as long as they are not snails, mealy bugs or scale I'm a little more relaxed) i found some unidentified bugs.
Some were fungus gnat larva and others were tiny tiny bugs that were running all over the place. I know that fungus gnats and their larva don't hurt the orchid if you keep it managed, and i know the other small bugs probably don't harm my plants either.
BUT... is it ever possible to be 100% bug free? no gnat larva. no tiny bugs making a home in your medium. no spiders, no nothing.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

[Pat'sCatt's]

I think your spot on, i also try to keep everything need and tidy, i spray when in doubt, okay, to be honoust, i kill anything that tries to attack my orchids. 😁
But i'm sure there are still some evil little buggers that lurk in the darkness of the corners of my greenhouse, lol, were plants grow there always will be some creepy crawlers too! 100% bugfree seems a Utopia....

[JMN16150]

Honestly, I don't think anyone could be 100% bug-free. One way or the other. . .fungus gnats find their way through potting soils, barks, and sometimes even perlite(I don't even know how). Besides why would one want a bug free environment when some bugs help plants? A colony of what I think is Hypoaspis miles is happily living inside my terrarium which is fungus gnat larva and adult free, but still has bugs due to the colony of living Hypoaspis miles. Not to mention the load of pests if you let one slip through. For now, I only have one D. venusta that is a magnet to aphids and ugly melees, which is next to other plants(I know I shouldn't, but I check other plants quite often) and the other plants grow without any alarmful symptoms or bugs appearing. . .Although it may mean my bayer rose and care is actually killing them or they love D. venusta too much.
-Just my thoughts

[Plodde]

Originally Posted by JMN16150

Honestly, I don't think anyone could be 100% bug-free. One way or the other. . .fungus gnats find their way through potting soils, barks, and sometimes even perlite(I don't even know how). Besides why would one want a bug free environment when some bugs help plants? A colony of what I think is Hypoaspis miles is happily living inside my terrarium which is fungus gnat larva and adult free, but still has bugs due to the colony of living Hypoaspis miles. Not to mention the load of pests if you let one slip through. For now, I only have one D. venusta that is a magnet to aphids and ugly melees, which is next to other plants(I know I shouldn't, but I check other plants quite often) and the other plants grow without any alarmful symptoms or bugs appearing. . .Although it may mean my bayer rose and care is actually killing them or they love D. venusta too much.
-Just my thoughts

OMG!! it's so funny you should mention Bayer rose ( insect killer) i've been using the same thing on my orchids for the past couple weeks with slight hesitation because i had never used it before and has scared it would harm the roots. but that stuff really works! i swear it helps with bush snails as well!!

[JMN16150]

I swear it works too... Although drawbacks are quite significant.
That being a systemic and causes the plant to produce poisonous pollen until it wears off.
On the other side it has pros.
That being a systemic (anything that bites it will die) and it is a concentration of some sort of nicotine, making it one of the more harder insecticides to adapt to. It's also safe for carnivorous plants.

[cbuchman]

Anyone who believes that they are bug-free is delusional.

[Plodde]

Originally Posted by JMN16150

I swear it works too... Although drawbacks are quite significant.
That being a systemic and causes the plant to produce poisonous pollen until it wears off.
On the other side it has pros.
That being a systemic (anything that bites it will die) and it is a concentration of some sort of nicotine, making it one of the more harder insecticides to adapt to. It's also safe for carnivorous plants.

Wow that sounds bad. I don't really understand it but posionous pollin sounds bad

[ula]

Yeah, I used to be pretty delusional that as long as I don't keep my orchids outside, nothing will get them. I was in for a big surprise...So, personally, I think it's virtually impossible not to get "a little something (or other)" at some point in time.

[Bud]

I don't have bugs inside my apartment....but....I get stragglers coming in with the new plants. So, I put them in a waiting room by the bathroom window and spray them with soap and liquid cinnamon making sure that the media mix is really soaked....in a week of that treatment I allow them to pose with the others in the bay window

---------- Post added at 04:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:45 PM ----------

The only bug allowed inside my apartment was that cute little mantis that I found perched on my Vanda....and a handful of lady bugs given to me by Aerondale in exchange for a philippinensis keiki

[Plodde]

So... i was watching miss orchid girl on youtube.com ( a really good channel for orchid lovers) and she was using hydrogen peroxide 3% to get rid of snails and as an overall sanitizer for her orchids when repotting.
Have any of you guys tried this?
I'm dealing with bush snails right now ( ordered some new orchids from Florida and they came with snails ; (..) and am thinking about going a hydrogen peroxide bath.
any thoughts?

---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:13 PM ----------

YAY!!!
okay so this might be love at first sight. I did the Hydrogen peroxide soak and it worked so well. I soaked each of my " snail infested" orchids for about 45min to an hour.
When i pulled them out dead snails everywhere!
It doesn't seem to have effected the roots at all.