Thanks for the heads up!

Sigh, I'm currently fighting scale on my Enc. cochleata one of my favorites :(
I noticed the little buggers on the flower stalk. I wondered why it hadn't flowered in a while. I cut the stalk and used alcohol on a Q tip to get rid of the scale I could see. I sprayed. I also had to peel down, off, the old sheaths around the pseudo bulbs and flower stalks and found more there.
Last night, I had to perform emergency surgery. One of the sheaths around the newest psuedobulb had devolped a rot spot so excised the top part of the sheaths away and sprinkled with cinnamon. Now that psuedobulb is all limp to one side. :(
It may be a goner. (
I hate scale.

Mealies - also like to hide there eggs under pot rims, bugs under clips on stems, and in between the petals on Phal flowers.

I've used alcohol as a local and Merit75 as a symtemic for these pests. What other solutions have you found especially effective? Cheerio

Newbie8, I'm sorry about your cochleata. It's dismaying to suddenly find them hiding on flower stems. BTW, cochleata is pretty vigorous. A rotty patch on one pb won't kill it, and it sounds like you dealt with the rot.

Linda-- eggs under pot rims, and mealies under clips? That is downright evil. I guess I ain't seen nothin yet. I've had the scale/mealies between the petals, tho, the devils. It really is hard to find every last one.

Beetle, I usually only have a few, maybe 6 or so, so I use locals-- alcohol, and ivory detergent on a Q tip to wash off the scale. They slide right off. Personally killing each one is kind of satisfying :) Sometimes I use Safer's Insecticidal if they're not on the flowers.

I've never used a systemic.

Another place for pests to hide:
I found a slug hiding in a hole in a cork mount. (I knew I did not prefer cork for some reason - this plant was purchased mounted on it) The slug was completely invisible until I was inspecting the Brassavola cuculata that is mounted on the cork. I put it to the light and turned it every which way intending to look at the roots, which I thought were not performing adequately. Lo and behold, a bit of light reflected off the slug in the hole. I got a flashlight and inspected further. I dragged the bugger out with the tip of a knife. Dispatched. Inspected, and Added "Sluggo" to number of other mounts with hidey-holes as well.

Good luck all- back to my own hidey-hole
Maryanne in WMass

I once bought a plant that had a price sticker on the leaf , Guess what was under it . Scale ! Gin

Aaargh. Just found a few more tiny, tiny fuzzies on the Fire Cracker buds. Then, found where they were originating-- under one of those dried up leaf fragments that hug the bottom stem of a phal.

Following Brooke's hint of soak and then peel off with tweezers, I did and found a tiny mealie factory in there.

Stinkos.

I've been fighting boisduval scale (the white kind) on of my favourite plants for months. It loves to hide in the nooks and crannies, particularly in and around new growths. It's a royal pain and just when you think it's gone it reappears. Absolutely evil stuff.

They are sneaky critters. I purchased a phal a couple of months ago, did my usual bare root and repot into my mix and had a couple of mealies pop up a few days later. I used a systemic and started the hunting process with q-tips and alcohol, twice a day.

Some days, no mealies, some days I'd find one, zap. I could see white coloration in the old bud scars, in the actual blooms so I used the q-tip method on all areas. I had not found any new mealies for a couple of weeks and was about to declare it mealie free.

For the last week, there has been a tiny white spot just above one of the leaf bracts but it never changed. Last night, presto, stupid mealie crawling out, zap, dead. The eggs must be in the leaf bracts, waiting to hatch. Today I will spray insecticide into the bracts hoping to find more of the evil creatures.

Brooke

Have any of you tried Bayer Complete? It's a systemic liquid that comes in a bottle that you can attach directly to your hose. I bought it from Orchids by Acker, and they told me it's new this year and the most effective systemic they have ever seen. The only bug it isn't recommended for is spider mites and when I used it on my orchids, the only bug I had was spider mites. Recommendation, or not, it killed them dead and I haven't seen any new hatch. That was in Sept.

I didn't want to use with my outdoor hose, so I measured and used a pressure spray bottle to dose all my orchids (outdoors), before I brought them in this fall. I was very happy with the result. I've been watching closely and so far, so good.

Why didn't I think of that?

Brooke, you're right, they are in the tiny bracts on the spike, that's why they show up on every new bud or flower that appears. I'm actually relieved to finally know how they are getting there.

Susan, you're right. I'm tired of this--it's been going on for about 5 months in different plants-- new mealies on every new flower. Time for a systemic.

I've been using Bayer rose and flower spray, with imidacloprid/merit. It could be similar to Bayer Complete, which I have not seen. Before I found Bayer last year, I always brought in some scale at the end of the summer, and it would really get going on the backs of phal leaves. Have seldom seen scale (altho I did have it on an oncid stem as Mehitabel said) since then. Great stuff.