Bug problem

[Cheddarbob14]

So, I recently had my 1st slider mite problem with 1 of my plants. I bought azamax, gave it a soak, and isolated the plant. Just went away for a weeks vacation, and came home to find 2 more (oncidium types) that have it pretty bad also. Then this morning, I spot a small, flat, roundish critter (mealy bug?) scurrying around on top of the medium of 1 of my cattleyas. I'm thinking I need to hit all of my orchids with chemical warfare. All I have currently is the azamax, but do have rubbing alcohol available also. Half of my orchids are in full water culture so it will be easy to just pop them out and do some sort of a full plant soak if recommended. The other half are potted in more traditional medium. Any suggestions on how I could treat everything? Any body else use azamax, and could you recommend how you use it? I currently only have 1 in bloom, nothing else is in bloom or spike so I'm not worried about losing any flowers.

I grow indoors, east facing bay window. Humidity is generally around 45% even with the AC running as often as it is. Plants occasionally step outside when there's rain without much wind.

[estación seca]

I don't know what was scurrying on the surface of your medium. Unless I knew I wouldn't try to kill it. Mealy bugs don't scurry; in the proper life stage, a few move at a leisurely pace.

Spider mites are almost certainly on every plant in your house. You will need to treat every plant, orchid or not.

Spider mites spread rapidly when humidity is below perhaps 60%. They spread more slowly when it's above this. You need to watch closely when it is less humid than about 60%.

Spider mites are mostly on leaf under surfaces. You have to treat the entire plant. Whatever you use, you will need to pick up every plant and spray all the surfaces of every plant.

You can use rubbing alcohol. In the US this refers to 70% isopropyl alcohol, and is commonly sold here. Ethanol would work just as well in areas where isopropanol is not available.

You can also use a liquid dish soap solution as a spray (half to one teaspoon per quart of water / 2.5-5ml per liter.)

You can use these two solutions without gloves, mask and protective clothing. Just do it somewhere where you won't inhale much of the spray. If you use pesticides you must be careful not to get them on your skin and not to breathe the mist.

With the alcohol or soap, you will need to spray every surface of every plant every 4-5 days for 3-4 sprayings. Then you will need to be very vigilant. They kill adults, but not eggs. You need to kill all the hatchlings before they mate and lay more eggs. I don't know whether the pesticides kill eggs. Generation time depends on ambient temperature; the warmer, the faster they reproduce.

Soaking a mite-damaged plant can kill it, because there can be an enormous amount of damaged tissue under the leaves. It can take several days for this damage to be obvious to the eye. If you soak a plant with a lot of epidermal damage, it will soak up huge amounts of water and die.

I prefer not using chemicals stronger than rubbing alcohol or dish soap solution; I don't think the chemicals are more effective on a long-term basis. Plus they are very expensive.

I buy rubbing alcohol at a local Smart & Final store. It comes in 1 gallon containers for not much money. I keep a spray bottle with 70% alcohol in my growing area at all times.

I do a preventive treatment on all my mite-susceptible plants before I leave for more than a few days. I have returned from being gone a week and found plants that had no evidence of mites when I left, now killed by mites.

Oh, and you will learn which plants are most susceptible. Plenty of gardeners keep a very susceptible plant along with their other plants to use as an indicator of mite presence. Among orchids, mites love to attack Catasetinae, Oncidiums and thin-leafed Dendrobiums. Mite magnets among other plants include anything in the nightshade family - Brugmansia, edible peppers, Datura. Also Lobivia and Echinopsis cacti, true jasmine (Jasminum spp.), Moringa and coleus.

[bil]

Yeah, my Catasetinae are mite magnets, so every couple of months they get sprayed with a serious acaricide.

As for mealy bugs, wait till the plant needs watering, then spray it with a systemic ie imacloprid, and then soak the medium with that same solution. If you don't soak the medium you risk them returning.
Repeat in 2 weeks.

[Leafmite]

I am not a fan of spraying pesticides indoors, either. Neem oil is my new option for indoors. If I was to use a pesticide, I would likely move the plants outside and away from the home to treat. No matter what treatment upon which you decide, all the plants in your home should be treated. Good luck!

It is interesting that some plants are magnets for different pests and some are never touched by anything (Artemisia absinthium). I am planning on spraying all my plants a few times with neem oil before bringing them inside, then a few more times after they are brought inside.

[bil]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

It is interesting that some plants are magnets for different pests and some are never touched by anything

Well, some pests simply aren't capable of biting into tougher leaves, some are chemically coded to only hit on certain species, and so on.

For instance, I have had plum and apricot trees where the fruit was destroyed by bugs before I could eat it. I have planted a coouple of plum apricot hybrids, and nothing touches them.

[Leafmite]

The reason you may not be getting as many insects right now is that if you have everyone spraying their fruit trees and there are not any ornamental fruit trees that go unsprayed, you have 'community immunity'. Weather, beneficial insects, the type of pesticide and many other factors can contribute to less pests. If the insects are there, they will eventually go for your hybrid fruit trees.

[bil]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

The reason you may not be getting as many insects right now is that if you have everyone spraying their fruit trees and there are not any ornamental fruit trees that go unsprayed, you have 'community immunity'. Weather, beneficial insects, the type of pesticide and many other factors can contribute to less pests. If the insects are there, they will eventually go for your hybrid fruit trees.

Naaaah, the apricots and the plumms were ripped to shreds even with me spraying like crazy. They simply don't see the plumcots as food.

[Cheddarbob14]

This plant is going to be a pain to treat!

[estación seca]

Adult spider mites are easy to wash off leaves. Take it outside in the shade. Use your garden hose to spray the underside of each leaf, one after the other, with a stiff stream. Don't use a stream hard enough to damage the leaf. Now spray the entire surface of all the trunks. This will knock the mites off the plant. You will need to repeat this every 4-5 days to get them as they hatch.

[dounoharm]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I am not a fan of spraying pesticides indoors, either. Neem oil is my new option for indoors. If I was to use a pesticide, I would likely move the plants outside and away from the home to treat. No matter what treatment upon which you decide, all the plants in your home should be treated. Good luck!

It is interesting that some plants are magnets for different pests and some are never touched by anything (Artemisia absinthium). I am planning on spraying all my plants a few times with neem oil before bringing them inside, then a few more times after they are brought inside.

oh leafmite! for people with indoor collections, you can put your plant in one of those big black leaf bags and spray away without hurting anything.....if you just spray outdoors, you could have a 'drift' when the poison gets taken by the wind....we have to think of our bees nowdays....I use strong chemicals, but only in a controlled environment, and early in the day.....for my organic veggies, ANYTHING I spray must be done before 10am....before the bees come out.....careful careful!