Vanda - Is this thrip?
 

My Vanda Sansai Blue finally opened its flowers after I cared for it 1 year. This morning as I was admiring the 3 buds that opened.....i noticed discoloration on the first flower. Right side of the picture. Theres a bit brown on the edges and upon closer inspection there are tiny things crawling! ugh. I freaked out and grabbed my go to spray bottle (equal parts rubbing alcohol & water, 1 tsp neem oil, 1 tsp soap solution) and drenched the whole plant & flowers. I just came home from work and the 4th bud opened but it looks quite sad and not as vibrant as the rest. I still see some bugs crawling and the other buds are starting to have the same brown edges. I removed most of the bugs with an Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol and took a pic on a tissue. These damn things move quite fast!!! :((

Is it Thrips???? This picture is as close as I could get with the iPhone. Please confirm and help me treat it....:( I'm thinking about picking up a bottle of Bayer Advanced 3 in 1. Will that be effective?

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Well think i may have just answered my own question. After another qtip squishing, spotted some black dots here and there which im reading is how most thrips are detected. Poo on my blooms! Drenched it again with my homemade solution. I ordered Bayer 3 in 1 on amazon.....it'll be good to have on hand anyhow. Anyone found success fighting these recently? Are there decent natural preventative measures or should i regularly spray systemic insecticide during the warmer months?

:bump:

Yes, those are thrips. Thrips are a very common problem with vandas and they can sometimes destroy the buds before they even open. I use Ortho Rose and Flower insecticide from Home Depot. It's intended for use on open flowers but just spray a fine mist on the flowers and do it again a week later.

I buy ladybugs and they keep other critters population on the low numbers.

Wow i didnt know u could use ladybugs. Probably the only bug im not freaked out about. What happens when the ladybugs multiply or do you just set them free when the thrips are gone? Seems so cool to me.

Update: the homemade concoction seems to have worked. Sprayed it twice and havent seen any thrips since but ill keep a close eye on it and spray again in a few days.

I'm not at all sure ladybugs eat thrips. I have many ladybugs and I sometimes still have thrips. Hate those things. There are yellow sticky traps you can buy but I have never used them as I am afraid the lady bugs will stick to them. Did I say I have lots of lady bugs. Really, for some reason they are just naturally here so I sometimes have a hard time spraying stuff even thought I also do get aphids.

Sense you have neem oil why don't you just use it? I use it for about everything. I use to work at a Greenhouse and we where having really good luck putting neem oil in the foggers at night.

But see if you can get some of those yellow sticky traps and you can stick them into your pots. Then you will know if and when those pesky critters come back.