Summer and Bugs

Bugs are on most plants in the summer. In our greenhouse we never leave the doors open because bugs can come in. We open windows that have screens on them. Try to check your orchids weekly for bugs and for sticky leaves. This sticky is the eggs from mealy bugs. We had one year where we had ten orchids get mealy bugs and we put them in our hospital. I don’t use chemicals but larger growers have to. I don’t like chemicals of any kind. We use Dawn dish soap in a spray bottle. One teaspoon to a 16 ounce spray bottle. We spray the leaves when they have any sticky stuff and we pour a good portion over the media where most bug problems start. The bugs go for the dark, moist, media and the eggs (after hatching) eat the new little leaves. So, the spray suffocates the mealy bugs due to the soapy water. After your orchid blooms, change the media once a year if you want to be safe. I change out sphagnum moss once per year because it deteriorates easily.

Bugs are not something you should blame on growers. It is a fact of life that bugs love plants. The rule of new orchids is to keep them separate from your collection for a good month, some people do it for longer. You don’t put all your orchids together until you are sure your new orchids are bug free. Even in the same room can contaminate your orchids. There are people who have bugs on their orchids, bring in a new healthy orchid and it gets bugs or disease in the first week. This means the old orchids infected the new orchid.

So, make sure you are separating the new from the old orchids. Also, if you have an outbreak, take each orchid, empty the media, clean off the roots with the spray soapy water, wash the pot thoroughly, dip the leaves and the entire orchid in soapy water and then put in new media, in a clean pot, with your washed orchid. In some bad cases, you need to do this with each orchid. So, to save time and problems, check your orchids weekly during the spring and summer months.