Anyone know what does this?
 

These little critters, honest to god look like little red ants but nobody seems to know what they are. They are doing this to all my leaves....veeeeeery frustrated. :(( Help!!

This looks like spider mite damage. These are so small, they are barly preceivable by the naked eye. I can't see them in your picture, but that doesn't mean that their not there. Can you get a white paper and hold it under the leaves, then shake them to see if any drop off? Is there any similar signs of damage on your other orchids or houseplants?

The only thing I can see are these little ant critters. Nothing comes off on paper so I am baffled. No other damage on my other houseplants. Just orchids in this one room.

They may have already migrated elsewere. How long have you been treating them? The mite damage isn't reversible, but the phal will slowly grow new leaves over the damaged ones to hide them, but it will take a long time.:_( Tindo says that there is a spray just for the job. I would go look into this. Do NOT mix your sprays, and don't spray if the orchid room is over 85degrees of if there is sun on them.

Are they ants? If so they are probably 'farming' the mites. This isn't a good thing really.

I have been spraying them for weeks now. It does seem to be getting a little better. Some of the most damaged orchids seem to be growing new leaves as well so I haven't lost any yet but I have be trying a lot of different things. It's been a tough battle and is really ticking me off. My room isn't that warm and no direct sun. The Doktor Doom stuff I just purchased says it's for mites as well so we'll see how it goes.

Also try wiping a white tissue over the leaves to see if there are any red smears, a sign of mites.
Ants are also attracked to the sticky substance that scale insects leave in their wake. They also like aphids and mealybugs

Only other pest I have is Scale, but I have them pretty much under control. I constantly check the leaves and make sure I clean them off if I find any. Man I hate them almost as much. Haven't had aphids yet (knock on wood) and mealybugs are a definite no.

I have to agree that it is mite damager. I had that happen to one of my masdevallias and the leaves looked very similar to that. I used a dilute alcohol solution on a cotton ball and wiped down the leaves, and then used an insecticidal soap, which worked very well for controlling them. I also have had to deal with some scale, and now it is under control. I agree, it's a pain to deal with too! good luck!

The really effective spray for mites is one of the registered miticides such as Kelthane. They are hard to find as they are pretty toxic. All of the mixed spays that say they control mites only reduce the populations - not elliminate them. They are targetted for crops and other annuals where the plant only has to survive the season. Do a search for miticide or kelthane and see what comes up. By the way, the mites probably aren't gone, just between populations - eggs still probably exist and anothe population may apear. There are several good oils available for controll of scale. Try to find one that won't upset orchids.

Kelthane does sound interesting, but it's probably not avaible here in Canada since most of the strong chemicals have been done away with. Safer's bug soap is good. I also routinely soap my orchids with dish detergent. I use it as a soil drench and as a spray about 3 times 10-14 days apart every few months. I have used Safer's Endall with the canola oil in it on my orchids and it hurt the leaves, so I would be very careful of what oils I used. I have used Neem oil and they didn't mind, if you can stand the smell.

P.S. Scale really hates soap.:evil: :biggrin:

I have used End-All without problem on Catts, Phal, Paph, Den, Tol, Cym. I do water the plants well before treating for any pests and make sure the temperature is not to high in the grow area.

Other than that I use Neem oil - the smell only presists 2 days......a whole lot less time than Kelthane or any of the other killers (bugs and people)!

There is a homemade solution that also works well from the COC web news. See Canadian Orchid Congress Newsletter - VOL16.4 - September 2004

It works pretty good and I believe that Christina at the Orchid Shop uses it also.

Some other references of note: An Evaluation of Selected Miticides for Control of Two-Spotted Spider Mites on Marigolds
Miticide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They might help in narrowing down a chemical safe to orchids and registered for use in Canada. Kelthane is only 1 of dozens of miticides and with orchardists just as concerned, chemical companies are working overtime to find substitutes. For what it's worth, Kelthane is banned in Michigan as well. I just happen to possess a small supply :evil:

Pest Control
 

The Spider mite Life cycle is in 5 stages Fom Eggs to Larva to 1St nymph stage to 2nd Nymph stage to Adult. This life cycle depends on temps. The entire cycle can be over 10 days in periods of higher temps. As temps and daylength decrease females go into hibernation and crawl into a dark place until better conditions prevail.

Why is it important to know about their life cycle you ask?

With this knowledge it becomes much easier to eradicate them.

Two factors in orchid culture facilitate an explosion of spider mites. One is lack of Humidity. They flourish in low humidity growing areas. The second is plants that are stressed due to chronic lack of water. So that is something that is just as important as which pesticide to use.

Which pesticide to use depends on situation and which stage of the life cycle. If you are growing in a home Using a pesticide meant for a greenhouse is not a good idea. There are lots of pesticides out there but the market for the home gardener is relatively small. The more toxic stuff is available only to growers who have a pesticide applicators licence (in Canada) Those growers also have access to more info on toxcicity, which stage of the life cycle it is effective on and whether it is systemic or non systemic killing on contact and if it acts over several days or if as soon as it is dry it stops being effective.
Personally I favor products such as Trounce or End All in my greenhouse It is considered an organic product and works against a broad range of insects. It kills on contact but isn't effective once it dries. Plus its toxicity is very low and won't have any detrimental effects on people or animals WEll unless they drink it I suppose.:hmm
The trick with such products is to consider life cycle. So if the mites have a 10 day life cycle sprayng every two weeks will not eradicate them.

So once you have picked your pesticide you now have to think about the most effective way to spray it. The best time to spray is at the end of the day. The other thing that is EXTREMELY important is to make sure the plants are well watered before you spray. Dry plants can be damaged by pesticides This is called Phytoxicity.

So my recomendations are; use something like End All, Trounce or Dr Doom These all contain Pyrethrins. Spray every 10 days for three weeks and time your spraying for the evening, sun and pesticides don't mix, and make sure the plants have been watered that day. The other thing you can do is mist the plants daily with cool water because spidermites HATE wet humid conditions and cold water so that will also help. Over the long term take a look at your cultural conditions and possibly not let your plants get so dry but even more important you need to raise the humidity to at least 60 % higher is better.

This should help in the bug fights! :fight :cheer:

Nicely done Christina! Excellent info.

Excellent job, Christina! :clap:

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with our members :dance:

Excellent info Christina, shed's a whole new light on insecticides, some in which I never knew existed, not to mention the little buggers :evil: life cycles.

Keep in mind folks... the above is ONLY for Canada. Dr Doom is NOT available except in Canada. What is registered in your country is what you should be using.

:shock: Much happen here today.:biggrin: We're gonna get those mites! Thanks for the article on spraying for the two spotted spider mite, a very interesting experiment. I'm willing to bet there's some melathyon and cygon2E hanging out in some gardening sheds around here too. I had people in the nursery buying it up by the armful as it was being illegalized.;)

Hey Christina, thanks for the info.

Believe me I've been growing these things since roughly 1998 and have NEVER had these things. Had some mealy bugs on the odd one, went through a small aphid infestation (only had a few plants at the time) and saw more than my share of scale. Tried everything from Safers, Endall Trounce, Neem Oil, this spray, that spray, voodoo, witchdoctor....have even sprayed 70% alcohol and a mixture of water and Diazinon. :dumb: I have never had this much trouble with a pest....if I didn't cherish the plants so much I would set the little buggers on fire!! :((

I unfortunately cannot get the humidity any higher than 40% and keep it there....it goes up down and sometimes the meter reads LL which means none at all. I have pebble trays, water trays and have gone through my share of humidifiers, and they are not cheap. Man I would give my left arm for a greenhouse. *sigh* :(

Had my shelves in the basement with an HID light but had no blooms, so I switched to plan B. Built myself a shelf and had to put it in the upstairs bedroom because of the ceiling height in the basement....it just wasn't high enough and the shelf is 7 feet high. I love it up here where my computer room and bedroom are...have the whole upstairs to myself. :biggrin: Only problem, is that it's much harder to keep the humidity higher.

I will see if I can find a picture of my shelf to post here.

Here is the stand I built. It's 7 feet high and 48 inches across (4 feet). I have re-organized it a lot since I put initially put it together, and now I have about half as many plants so it's thinned out a lot. Took me a long time to do this but I love it....and yep...using fluorescent tubes only and I am actually blooming a lot of them.

That's a very nice setup Teresa it looks very efficient and easy to manage.
As far as the spraying goes I would definately not use diazanon in a house. It is quite toxic. Believe it or not it isn't always that easy to raise humidity in a greenhouse. Mine has a big heater that blasts hot air and when its dry and cold outside the humidity drops like a stone even with my fogger. I found out one fogger isn't enough I need two. Although I'm not a big fan of misting plants I think in your case you might consider it. I read somewhere that mites hate cold water so I tried it last summer on a few plants that were having problems with mites.(they were outdoors). Between regular spraying and daily washing with water I got the upper hand but it doesn't happen overnight. One question. Were you spraying the undersides of the leaves ? Mites live on the undersides so spraying the tops only doesn't help. Also you need to spray to the point of runoff ie the plants should be really wet almost dripping.
There are a wide range of effective pesticides that are available to professonal growers but they have to be used with caution. Most have a re-entry interval which is a time period where nobody can be in the greenhouse. Some as much as 48 hours. I shudder to think that some people would use these products indiscriminately. Well this is a pet peeve for me and I could rant forever. There are new less toxic products being developed that are much more effective and safer to use.

Hello again. That is a beautiful set up Teresa and you would hardly know from the picture that you are having such bug problems. We had spider mites in the garden really bad during a really dry spring and summer a couple years ago and I used Endall full strength to stop them and I also watered in the evening. This did help to slow them down. Just stay on top of them and you will probably defeat them evenually, althought mites can be very difficult. Another question, how warm is your growing room? Too much furnace heat can be problematic too. It is best to avoid getting water sitting in the apex of phals, paphs and phrags in the evening since this can cause rot and/or aborted buds. But you probably already knew that.:blushing:

Mites love Phals. wreck them in a hurry , as Ross said Keltane will get them if you can spray out of the house ,If in the house I got rid of them a couple of years ago by spraying them with Safers then washing them 3 days later and respraying . several times. They have a short hatch cycle something like 3 days I would treat other plants in the area .Low humitity is what they like .
Orchid Pests and Diseases
Gin the bug :(( hater

Prevention is easier than the cure. Believe it or not, orchids are not the hardest plants to treat for spider mites. Cacti are. Safer's soap will destroy the outer cell layer of cacti and kelthane isn't much better. Mites are the main reason I left cacti for orchids. All the cacti looked gross with scarring and white deposits. Increasing humidity or wetness with cacti are not possible due to the plants' desired conditions. Orchids grown well under optimum conditions should not have mites (in my opinion).

Teresa, is the damaged area still spreading since you started treating for this condition because the damaged areas will never recover and as the leaf ages will probably look worse. you also mentioned ant like, does that mean they were dark rather than reddish if so it could be thrip damage which is very much like spider mite damage and I believe harder to eradicate (google thrip damage).

:shock: Thrips. Hope not for Teresa's sake. Didn't think they lived outside a greenhouse, or on the Crocosmia and Glads in the garden. I did treat thrips with Endall a few times too and it took care of them. Persistence is key.

Yuppers Christina! Always spray underside and on top until the leave is completely wet and dripping.

Actually it's better than it was and they it doesn't seem to be spreading right now (knock on wood). What can I say about this but...looks like a mini ant! They are reddish but I wouldn't say dark. You can see them walking around occasionally. When I do see them, I spray them immediately and I have been seeing less and less of them. Maybe I am winning the battle? :fight

Oh my god don't even say that, LOL! I checked what thrips looks like and the "poop" they leave. Definitely isn't those.

If they are reddish then the little devils would be spider mites and it does sound like you are winning the battle. Good for you.