Bush snail on strange medium
 

Hi all, yesterday I bought a den. Farmeri at the rhs orchid show and noticed some bush snails on the sphagnum moss. I thought I can get rid of the medium and the snails if I remove it all. However the sphagnum moss was on the surface and the roots were densely packed with some perlite and something like spikes of a sea urchin. Do you know what it is? Whatever it is ,it does hold lots of water and the roots look gone. What should I do?

Sounds like tree fern perhaps. I would get rid of all medium and bad roots and then repot.

Any pics?

That's what I was thinking . I guess I will have say good bye to the buds.

I have attached a picture. This is the weirdest medium I have ever seen. It took me 90 minutes to remove it .

Daethen was right, its tree fern which is also known as osmunda. You might want to let your plant sit without media for a few days and dry out to see if there are any snails left. Once they get in, their VERY difficult to get out. Better to be overly cautious with bush snails.

I have a couple of home remedies to get rid of snails.

1. Put slices of potato over the medium at night/when it's dark. In the morning snails are feeding on the potato and it can be thrown away. Even if this method does not remove them all it helps see if there likely to be any more there.

2. Soak the pot (roots and medium included) in half strength coffee. After about 10min look on the plant just above the medium for snails which have crawled out and remove. The coffee also seems to kill them in the pot. Rince with plain water.

I've successfully got rid of them with a combination of these two methods.

Bush snails aren't attracted to any baits, but soaking the roots in coffee should work. Yesterday I was eliminating my last colony of bush snails and dipping the roots in some serious chemicals. I'd much prefer to use coffee instead!

Well, it is tree fern, but not Osmunda.

Osmunda (O.Regalis) is a large fern that typically grows waist high. It is wild in eastern North America, Texas to Manitoba and eastward. The roots were once harvested extensively for growing orchids, etc. But the "fibers" are different. With Osmunda, the fibers are from the root mass - typically they are softer & often a lighter color of brown.

Some people still grow orchids in Osmunda, and you can still find it for sale occasionally. While cleaning out the garage, I recently came across some that I bought 15+ years ago - may eventually plant something in it.

I had no idea! Thanks for letting me know!