SO disappointed - Something ate buds

[thepurpleorange]

I have been waiting with bated breath for my beautiful mokara to blossom. It suffered crown rot some months ago, grew a nice keiki and shortly after began to spike.

This morning I went out to check its progress and found that its petals had been bored into and chewed away. One whole bud (the oldest one) was totally gone. This definitely happened overnight or this morning since when I checked it last evening it was fine.

The mokara is mounted outdoors on a wooden post. Recently I've seen a carpenter bee hanging around... and recently even boring a hole somewhere on that very post and now since this has never happened before, I'm wondering if that was the cause. I never thought bees ATE flowers!

does anyone have a clue?? I sprayed pesticide on it every so often but since it's outside, the rains have been washing it away.

I'm sooooooo disappointed. I cut off the spike since it made no sense at this point. The only silver lining is that I hope next time around my orchid will have much more energy saved for an even bigger bloom. sigh...

[mollycart1]

Oh, No. I am so sorry to hear that.

Could it be done by SLUGS?

[thepurpleorange]

No, slugs aren't very common in my garden and I see no trace of them at all... I can't imagine that they could be so quick to come and disappear within a few hours leaving no trace. I am wondering what I will do the next time around when it's in spike!!

[bballr4567]

Some bees don't eat flowers but use the petals to line their cavity and provide a food source for the larvae.

Of course, I think. Lol

Sorry about the loss!

[thepurpleorange]

Thanks bballr4567. This makes a lot of sense. The carpenter bee has for the last week or so been working away at preparing its nest... which is like i said on the same 5 ft post the orchid is on. I tried blocking the hole up a few days ago but it didn't work. And I didn't want to actually kill the bee was just hoping to shoo it away.

It will also make sense too, because whatever attacked it preferred the buds that had big developed petals, instead of the smaller ones (whereas I've seen insects that attack my dendrobium buds prefer the smaller ones than the fully developed, almost ready to bloom ones)

still sigh! now to get rid of the bee... I guess.

[Gage]

Oh nooo!!!! My first Vanda blooming was a munchathon disaster. I found that one insecticide (Ortho rose and bloom) just sort of rolled off the spike and buds maybe because of the sticky sap, but then I tried Garden Safe brand 3-in-1 fungicide/pesticide/miticide (neem oil based) and it seemed to stick better and keep the buggies away. But man those thrips are persistent! Anyhow, I hope next go round is bug-free for you.

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by thepurpleorange

Thanks bballr4567. This makes a lot of sense. The carpenter bee has for the last week or so been working away at preparing its nest... which is like i said on the same 5 ft post the orchid is on. I tried blocking the hole up a few days ago but it didn't work. And I didn't want to actually kill the bee was just hoping to shoo it away.

It will also make sense too, because whatever attacked it preferred the buds that had big developed petals, instead of the smaller ones (whereas I've seen insects that attack my dendrobium buds prefer the smaller ones than the fully developed, almost ready to bloom ones)

still sigh! now to get rid of the bee... I guess.

I once read an article about carpenter bees. To get rid of them it suggested poking steel wool into their entry holes.

[thepurpleorange]

thanks for your suggestion!
yes I've been doing a lot of reading up on them... another orchid on that very post is also in spike at the moment (actually, it was the first time they were both in spike and was looking forward to flowers galore :'( ) so I'm going to try to get the problem resolved before those are also ruined!!