Mealybugs

[BillieG]

Seems I have mealybugs in my orchids. I've been gone a lot these past few months, and haven't really been inspecting them, just watering, so instead of one orchid (I assume the new one I brought home from the orchid show and thought it was ok to put with others), most of them are infected. I had sprayed weekly with various insecticide sprays for 3 times and changed medium and pored systemic on the bark. Yesterday I noticed that there are STILL mealybugs and white fluff. Found new on the phals around the new buds. At least I think they are mealybugs due to the white fluff and one white bug.

So, I made a spray of soapy water and drenched all of them. I am about ready to toss them in the trash, as I am so tired of spraying and wiping and they are in my kitchen dining area in a window on a large bakers rack near my table which grosses me out.

So my question is now what do I do? If I've sprayed 4 times now with various insecticides and soapy water and changed the medium, what else do I do? Do I pour insecticide down into the bark? Soapy water? I am not changing the medium again. I threw the worst ones away, because they looked beyond recovery to me. I have never had a harder time getting rid of pests.