Mites found in moss bark mix!!
 

I have about half my orchids in S/H, and the rest in an orchid mix with spag moss. Recently I discovered tiny dark brown (or black?) mites crawling around the lip of an miniature orchid container that is in S/H!! I was stunned. I thought that the S/H media couldn't sustain insect life... I took the mini phal out of the S/H, cleaned up the few viable roots it has, and put it in fresh moss on a heat mat.
That said, I moved onto discover that I also have them living in the mixes my other phals are in.:help I sprayed with Safer Soap, as that's all I have here, and really need to know if Safer Soap is even what I need to use. In addition, do I have to repot every one of these orchids? Can I safely saturate the medium with what ever you guys recommend??:roll::hmm

Are they mites or springtails? Makes a difference. Mites are bad guys for sure. Springtails are fairly innocuous. Just spray the mites with a miticide.

They are definitely mites. What kind of mitecide should I use?

Just a warning that mites can be really hard to get rid of. I've had them in S/H ones as well.

In the UK chemicals that can get rid of them are not available so easily, so I can't really advice on that.

look at bayer complete.

Thank you all for your help. Got the "measurement for dummies" on SucraShield, and I'm crossing my fingers!

Do your mites look like super tiny little shiny black beetles?:_(

I have a couple of threads looking for help with this now. I just got a plant Saturday and found them on it today. After spraying with Bayer Natria they crawled to another plant that I believed to have little gray mites (they were a lot smaller than the springtails I've seen but now I've found springtails on my Paph 'Pink Fred' and they're all different sizes). I maybe killed the new guys springtails but the little black bugs are still present even after spraying.

Is this what you had (not my pic, found online):

Attachment 97692

Lotis, I've seen ones like your tiny tiny black beetles in the past. I too would like to know what they are.

Where did you find the pic?

---------- Post added at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 AM ----------

I should say those in that pic are not like the spider mites I've had problems with, but I think there are all sorts of mites, so they could still be mites.

The tiny black ones I have seen also seemed to like water, where spidermites don't.

Mites - if that's truly what they are (do they have 8 legs?) - must have living tissue to suck juices out of. That would be the plant, mosses or mold, and not the medium.

Well since you just sprayed with Safer's Insect Soap you should be aware that for the ones in s/h you could apply it for the second time a little sooner than for the ones in pots or baskets. Soap tends to dry things out so your application needs to be every 7-10 days on your potted plants. You should do at least three applications since there is a heavy infestation.

Alternatively, one advantage to soaking your plants (though I guess the water in Vermont is still pretty cold) is it forces a lot of bugs out of the medium. This is why a lot of people dunk their plants. I used to do it a lot more and now on occasion I do it to force the springtails out of my Tolumnias.