Help!
 

Hello all,
I decided I really needed to create a profile on here so I could ask others for some much needed help.

I have a bulb. lasiochilium X facinator that I have received from my grandfather which has been doing quite well. However I have noticed that the new bulbs that are coming in are dying. After watering today I saw about 7 bush snails crawling all over! This isn't my first time dealing with bush snails as I have treated my Dendrobium ueang pheung with diluted bleach and worked like a charm. There are also little black plump insects also which I have never experienced. If you look closely at the picture you'll see it.

Since my Dendrobium is mounted, it was pretty easy to treat it, however my bulbophyllum is in a clay pot with sphagnum moss. Should I just remove all the sphagnum and repot it?

Anything helps!
Chris

I've never heard of using diluted bleach for pest control. Sounds like it would be quite harsh, and potentially deadly, to roots and the plant.

Try finding Metaldehyde and using that.

My grandfather told me about using bleach and I thought it was pretty harsh at first. What I did was submerged the dendrobium in water for about 10 minutes and then put bleach in. I left it in there for a couple minutes while wiggling it and I could see the snails and debris fall off. It was quite satisfying and I haven't seen any adverse effects on it and its been a couple months.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll be going out later to get some. Should I just leave it on top of the medium or work it in?

For bush snails, repot. Metaldehyde does not work very well on them. Might be useful to put it in the new medium after repotting, but physically get rid of the nasty little things first.

When I was bringing the plants inside, I discovered that I had infestations of bush snails and pill bugs with some colonies of mealy bugs. I haven't seen any of the three for nearly a month. I spread coffee grounds on the soil of all my plants and added some to the orchid pots as some studies have shown caffeine to be effective on Bush Snails. I also added sluggo plus for the pill bugs and sprayed the plants with Neem Oil three times a week for three weeks. Either the caffeine alone or the combination seems to have worked.

I really hate bush snails. I had gotten rid of them the last time with Sevin but, about a year ago, I found one in an order of new plants and picked it out, then examined all the other mounted plants very closely. Unfortunately, the snail I found must have either left behind hidden friends or eggs. I kept looking for them and would find one now and then after but they really exploded, apparently, over the summer.

Caffeine Foils Snails : USDA ARS

(PDF) The Orchid Snail as a Pest of Orchids in Hawaii