Translucent spots under 2 phal leaves, please help

[LisaK]

I'm hoping someone can help me. I was given two mini phals last April 2015. Both lost their blooms and I have been meaning to repot them. Over the time I've had them I see some white webs (spider mites?) at the base of the plants and I have been rinsing them off immediately. I haven't seen any webs develop in a long time. Then I saw one dot on one a new leaf and it didn't change for months. All of a sudden I saw all these spots on the underside of one leaf! Maybe my eyesight isn't great but I have never noticed scale or mites themselves. Can someone look at my pictures and confirm if it is mites or scale? I would also love a non toxic way to treat it. Since I'm about to repot them I've heard it is a good idea to treat the roots at that time but no website says what is the best method to do so. Do I spray the roots with diluted alcohol, or castile soap or neem oil??? Please advise, thank you.

[Ray]

First of all, that damage appears to be from sucking insects that have bitten the leaves, so I would be looking for critters crawling around.

Concerning repotting, I can think of no real good reason to treat the roots when repotting. Alcohol will desiccated them, soap won't do much of anything, and neem oil may clog up development, reducing their ability to take up water.

[LisaK]

Thank you Ray for your response. I thought they were scale marks but I have never been able to catch anything crawling. It did have webs (spider mites) months weeks ago but I would wash them off and haven't seen them come back.

I have read scale can feed on the inside roots too. My new pots are still in the mail so I haven't repotted yet.
I just bought a cinnamon soap water treatment that seems safe to spray on the roots. Perhaps when I repot I'll give the roots a spray with that. In the meantime I've sprayed the outside and have rubbed the spots with rubbing alcohol because I'm not sure if the tiny dark pin head dot is a scale bug or just where it was bitten.