Mother Freaking Spider Mites!! Argh!!

[My Green Pets]

Well what a coincidence. My lone Catasetum-type, a Mormodia Jumbo World, is starting its dormancy cycle, so I am reducing water. Wouldn't you know the mites have moved in and are all over the undersides of the leaves. Ironic because in a few weeks, the leaves will be falling off anyway but I don't want the boogers spreading to my other plants!

I started by dampening a paper towel and wiping each leaf from the bottom to the top. Took off lots of mites this way - yellowish-orange stains on the paper towel. Then I mixed about 1 cup of water with a tablespoon of canola oil and a few drops of Dawn dish washing liquid in a spray bottle. I shook it up and sprayed both sides of every leaf.

I guess I'll need to repeat this treatment in a few days (?).

The plant is sitting next to some large multifloral Paphs with thick waxy leaves - are they susceptible to infestation?

[Ray]

Yes

[Leafmite]

Ray, don't you sell something that can be used for mites?

[NYCorchidman]

Catasetum is said to be a red spider mite magnet.
I think that applies to the ones grown indoor where it is often quite dry.
With that said, one of my catasetum (cycnoches is the only genus I grow) has lots of red spider mites on the underside.
I do what you do. Just wipe with damp tissue or cloth.
I do this about twice a week and after one or two week of work, I don't see any.
My others, currently two in spike, have all their leaves green and fresh, and they have no bugs on their leaves.
Thank goodness!

Red spider mites will eat about anything, but I have not seen them on any of my paphs, and I have hundreds of them. I'm not saying that they don't catch these mites, but I just have never had them on any of my paphs for years of growing them.

I did have flat mite (not sure about the exact name, but these are also red, but the size is about 1/10 of red spider mites, moves slower, very hard to see unless you have a very good vision) on a couple of paphs that have been neglected and underwatered.
These mites seem to attach any plants that are suffering from underwatering, but I found them more commonly on other orchids like miltoniopsis, oncidium hybrids, (mostly commonly on these two groups) then dendrobiums sometimes, and paph (just two plants for me).

If you grow non-orchid houseplants, check them often for red spider mites and soft bodied brown scales.
These two are very common on indoor plants.
I find orchids in general are very resistant to bugs other than mealy bugs, even then, if you do not introduced infested orchids or other houseplant, rarely an issue.

Originally Posted by CambriaWhat

Well what a coincidence. My lone Catasetum-type, a Mormodia Jumbo World, is starting its dormancy cycle, so I am reducing water. Wouldn't you know the mites have moved in and are all over the undersides of the leaves. Ironic because in a few weeks, the leaves will be falling off anyway but I don't want the boogers spreading to my other plants!

I started by dampening a paper towel and wiping each leaf from the bottom to the top. Took off lots of mites this way - yellowish-orange stains on the paper towel. Then I mixed about 1 cup of water with a tablespoon of canola oil and a few drops of Dawn dish washing liquid in a spray bottle. I shook it up and sprayed both sides of every leaf.

I guess I'll need to repeat this treatment in a few days (?).

The plant is sitting next to some large multifloral Paphs with thick waxy leaves - are they susceptible to infestation?

[Leafmite]

If you have other plants and put everything outside during the summer, it is best to keep the other plants in a different room during the winter.

[NYCorchidman]

and not to mentioned to thoroughly check for pests and spray accordingly when bringing the plants in.

[jocierk]

I have also been battling spider mites so I feel your pain. Mine are itty bitty and bright red (the larger gray ones preceded them but were super easy to kill) they also don't actually have an webbing so I am thinking they could also be flat mites (looked at them with a 40x jewelers loupe and they are clearly some kind of mite). First I sprayed Bayer Dual Action Rose and Flower and that got rid of the gray ones. Once I noticed the red ones a few weeks later I brought the Bayer back out and it didn't phase them, I followed that with Garden Safe Fungicide3 and that didn't help. After that I hung plastic and did a Doktor Doom fogger (Pyrethrum) and they laughed at that. Then I sprayed each orchid with Bonide Dead bug Brew (spinosad) which actually helped kill off a noticeable amount of adults but I don't think it did anything for the eggs cause they came back with a vengeance. If you are trying to be natural and you can stay vigilant (dunk or spray every 4 days or so) I actually recommend this stuff. Its also supposed to be totally pet safe and doesn't stink. Since then I have dunked in Azamax and then a week later in more Dead Bug Brew and I just got done dunking in Horticultural Oil.

If my orchids live through all this I will be amazed but it seems like nothing is working as well as the reviews claim it does. I have lost 5 little bellina hybrids to mite damage at this point and one small cattleya. I have about 60 orchids and the mites for sure prefer the ones with thin delicate leaves, however they also seem to love my Angreacum (I account this to it being the most expensive orchid I own). I am hoping the previous two dunks will weaken the stupid things enough that the horticultural oil will finish them off.

I should also note that the humidity in the orchid room is high...stays around 75-80 lately... and this hasn't deterred the mites at all. I actually noticed the first explosion of the little red ones after I hiked up the humidity cause the orchids seemed dry.

Please keep us posted on how it all goes for you. I really hope you can get yours under control faster than I have been able to.

[katrina]

Originally Posted by jocierk

I have also been battling spider mites so I feel your pain. Mine are itty bitty and bright red (the larger gray ones preceded them but were super easy to kill) they also don't actually have an webbing so I am thinking they could also be flat mites (looked at them with a 40x jewelers loupe and they are clearly some kind of mite). First I sprayed Bayer Dual Action Rose and Flower and that got rid of the gray ones. Once I noticed the red ones a few weeks later I brought the Bayer back out and it didn't phase them, I followed that with Garden Safe Fungicide3 and that didn't help. After that I hung plastic and did a Doktor Doom fogger (Pyrethrum) and they laughed at that. Then I sprayed each orchid with Bonide Dead bug Brew (spinosad) which actually helped kill off a noticeable amount of adults but I don't think it did anything for the eggs cause they came back with a vengeance. If you are trying to be natural and you can stay vigilant (dunk or spray every 4 days or so) I actually recommend this stuff. Its also supposed to be totally pet safe and doesn't stink. Since then I have dunked in Azamax and then a week later in more Dead Bug Brew and I just got done dunking in Horticultural Oil.

There are mites...and then there are spider mites. They are not the same and treatments for them aren't always interchangeable.

As for your red mites -- are you sure those aren't predatory mites? I get very fast moving red mites in the spring/early summer and for years I kept trying to kill them but I never seemed to get rid of them. I would spray something and the next day there would be thousands again! And every spring I had more than I had the year before! Well, I found out a couple of years ago that what I've been trying to kill is actually a good guy. I leave them be now.

Here's some info on them -
Predatory Running Mite - What's That Bug?

I don't know if this is what you have but I know I've carried some in w/the plants in the fall and I just leave them be. I think they go dormant though because I never see too many after a certain period. Could be they are dying off w/out a food source. ??

Anyway...just throwing it out there. Mites/spider mites - there is more than one "red" one and not all mites are harmful.

[NYCorchidman]

Katrina, I would love some of those!

I rarely have red spider mites, but they are rather big for my eyes, thus easy to deal with, and get rid of.

The real pain is when I have this other mite, red and a bit slower moving than red spider mites, and much much smaller than red spider mites, say, 1/10 of it? It literally looks like a tiny little red brown dot.
Most people probably won't even realize that they are living things but dust particle.
That's exactly what I thought when I first saw them on my oncidiums and dendrobiums years ago, until...one day there were so many and they left some typical white/rusty marks on the underside of the leaves.
Now, I have a paph in bud and unfortunately I see a few of these little specks again. I can't spray on the bud as it will most likely blast it.
I've been just trying the get them off using a toothpick, but I'm aftraid doing this on a daily basis might upset the bud and cause it to drop off.
I don't see these bugs on the leaves or near plants or anywhere, but they are there every day right on the bud. How strange! I'm sure they walk not fly. lol
It is definitely not a running red mite, they do move but not at running speed.
Gosh! hate these super small pests. Such pain.

[Leafmite]

I have had both the bad red mites and the red predator mites.