Strange White Fuzz
 

Hello!

Recently I noticed this white fuzz on my orchid leaves. I have no idea what it is or how to treat it. At first I thought it may be mold, but after some research I'm thinking some sort of infestation. Anyone have any idea? How should I treat this? It's a clipping from my great grandmother's plant so I really want to keep it alive. Thank you!

I'm thinking mealy bugs. Put some alcohol on a Q-tip and see if there is a little pink stain on the Q-tip. That would tell you. Since you have so many, you might want to use several cotton balls and repeat the process. I have found them to be resilient little pests and you will have to monitor the plant for a long time.

It looks more like immature scale to me as I think I can also see several mature scale discs. Isolate your plant ASAP and check others that were near it.

Remove all that you can see and then it will need to be treated with an insecticide for a few weeks. There are likely more down in crevices that you can't get at or see. Scale is very hard to completely eradicate so you need to be diligent.

I agree with scale. I started using a systemic to control it.

Ok thank you both so much! If it is scale or even the mealy bugs should I repot?

I am using Bayer 3 in 1 for roses once a month. I found a major infestation in a couple of my paphs. They were hidden down deep in the leaves and were about to kill the plants before I found them. I have not repotted them. They are starting to look awesome already. Found this in the spring before they went outside for the summer. No sign of them at this point.

Does scale also appear fuzzy? The only time I've seen it was on my Bird of Paradise, and that just looked like hard flakes of something that was hard to scrape off the leaf.

Immature scale is fuzzy like that. The round discs are the mature female that lays eggs under the disc which eventually hatch and look fuzzy in the nymph stage.

Mealy bugs are white and cottony also but are usually big enough to see an individual creature with the naked eye.

It does look fuzzy. I just treated all the infected areas that I could see with alcohol. It all came off pretty easily. I'm just concerned about there being spots I cant see. All the leaves jave dark spots on them, and wjat look to be like circular brown dead spots.

It looks pretty clean but they can hide behind dry sheaths, etc. Keep a close eye and go for a systemic if they come back.