Orchid pests

Spider mite almost destroyed the top of the dendrobium

Pincers

Dangerous in that they are too small, become noticeable when the plant is already badly damaged. The body of an adult tick is no more than 1 mm, usually much smaller, 0.2-0.3 mm. There are a lot of ticks, there are with a transparent yellowish body, there are brick-red, brown. You can see it with a microscope or a large magnifying glass, but the signs are the same for all species: the surface of the orchid leaf begins to be covered with small gray dots or thin dashes, they gradually enlarge, the leaf acquires a silver tint - the cell juice is sucked out, and silvery is the translucent dead cells of the leaf, only the skeleton remains from them. By the way, you may never see the web with the naked eye.

But if you don't see the web, it doesn't mean that you don't have a tick, it can be negligible, visible only through a microscope. Or it's not spider mites that have settled on your orchid, but microscopic broad mites or cyclamens. These types of ticks can only be seen with a microscope, they do not form webs, but seriously harm orchids. Signs of a wide tick are similar to a chemical burn: first of all, the very tops of shoots, new growth, buds are damaged. The leaf unfolds with a deformed edge, with brown spots. Such signs are easy to confuse with trips, with overfeeding with fertilizer or a lack of boron. Therefore, it is worth carefully examining the plant, observe, study its development, analyze care.

In general, all herbivorous ticks love young shoots, affect, first of all, growth points. The problem with ticks is that these pests are not insects: ticks are arthropods. Conventional insecticides do not work on them. But not enough of this, the tick has a non-feeding egg stage, and all known drugs are mainly intestinal. I.e. when the leaf is wetted, the pest eats the poison and dries up, and since the eggs do not feed until they ripen, the poison does not act on them.

A tick on a miltonia (found in a microscope), almost complete chlorosis on the leaves, a peduncle measured.

And that's not all. It is not possible to kill the tick 100% at a time, they can hide in secluded places - in the substrate, in the axils of the leaves, and the survivors give new offspring already resistant to the pesticide used. Therefore, if a tick appears, you need to take it seriously.

More about ticks

Tick control measures on orchids

First, alternate drugs. If you sprayed the drug (recommended acaricides), and the tick reappeared after a few days, be sure to change the drug.

Secondly, there is very conflicting data on how air humidity affects the development of the tick, it was previously believed that high humidity restrains numbers, low humidity contributes to its reproduction. In fact, humidity affects different types of ticks in different ways, but by and large is not at all important. The temperature is important - the hotter, the faster the tick development cycle goes. I.e. even if the humidity is 80-90% and the temperature is about 28 degrees, the tick will breed wildly. We cannot influence the temperature, or rather we can, but this is not in the interests of the orchid itself. Therefore, you have to look for all kinds of methods of struggle in addition to the traditionally accepted humidification of the air.

Drugs of choice in the treatment of orchids from the tick Apollo, Sanmait, Vermitek. If it did not help the first time, you need to change the drug.

Second tip: to fight the tick on orchids, you do not need to spray the plants, they need to be soaked in the solution of the drug whole and completely, along with the substrate and pot. Nothing will happen to the plant. If there are flowers, soak with the flowers. In the case of the tick, the question of survival is who is whom, so of all the evils (you can lose flowers), it is worth choosing less.

Hold in solution for about 10 minutes, then remove and do not rinse. Leave to dry the substrate completely. I.e. the next watering must be canceled until all the soil dries. Remember, there are no systemic drugs among acaricides, only contact and intestinal-contact. Therefore, the better wet, the more chances to destroy all pests.

As for the most famous remedy for the tick - a hot shower, this method has opponents and supporters. We do not recommend using a hot shower on orchids if you have never practiced it on other houseplants. If you have already seen the results, you can safely try. The water temperature is 45-47 degrees. It is not very hot, in any case, the hand freely tolerates. The technique is as follows: we compose plants in a bath, adjust the water temperature, water for about 2 minutes, directing the flow of water to the back of the leaves. It is desirable that the pressure be very strong. Ticks and eggs are mostly washed away by the flow of water. Then for about a minute on the upper side of the leaves.

It is important, if the pressure is strong, to hold the orchid so that it does not wash out of the pot, does not break branches and leaves with the pressure. Watered. Leave to stand in the bathroom while it has wet steam. Water drains from the pots. Then we transfer to the room, only to a warm place. If the temperature is supposed to drop by night, we avoid it in every possible way, do not open the windows to ventilate. Only one day. In the future, thoroughly dry the soil in a pot.

If you notice that small black bugs that look like ticks crawl in orchids, it may be Shell ticks.

Mealy worm and shields

Laying worms in the roots of phalaenopsis.

Worms, like ticks, are very dangerous, difficult to hatch. Able to devour and destroy an orchid in a matter of weeks. It is found as white fluffy lumps in the axils of leaves. It is imperative to harass as soon as they find it.

To begin with, take a cotton swab, moisten in alcohol and carefully pick out pests from the leaf sinuses. You can do differently: bring the orchid under a stream of warm water and wash the pests simply with the pressure of water.

Previously, actara helped from worms (1 g per 1 liter of water) - spray and water. But more and more cases are described when the actara does not help. Therefore, we try Confidor-maxi from a worm and a shield on orchids: we dilute a bag for 1 liter of water. Immerse the pot completely for 2-3 minutes. We take it out, let the solution drain. Place the orchid in a bag, spray the solution on the sheet, tie the bag, leave to stand for an hour. We take it out and put it to dry and ventilate.

There is another recipe for chemical herbs from worms and shields, according to the advice of members of the forum: a solution of three chemicals is prepared, 1 l of water 1 g of actara, 1 g of mospilan, 1 g of confidor. Mix thoroughly, soak the orch as fully as possible for 20-30 minutes. Remove and dry. This recipe is the most effective, but requires a repeat after 5 days.

A worm on a phalaenopsis flower.

If it is not possible to fight the mealy worm with chemicals, if the plant is severely depressed, try another way to defeat the worm, at the same time provide stimulating support for your orchid: take half a tablet (250 mg) of fizzy aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) and dissolve in 1 liter of boiled water. In this solution, soak the orchid with full immersion, along with the substrate, leaves. The peduncle can be dipped separately. Instead of aspirin, you can take ascofen 2 tablets (crushed in a mortar) per 1 liter of water. This is a dosage for medicinal purposes. In general, acetylsalicylic acid is used to stimulate root formation, but in smaller doses - 500 mg per 4 liter of water 1 once a week watering by immersion. No more than three times per growing season.

From shields, worms, as well as whiteflies and some types of ticks, the Japanese drug Aplaud can help (in complex treatment in parallel with other drugs or non-chemical agents - hot shower, washing). This is a hormonal drug , it suppresses the synthesis of chitin in insects (blocks the transition of larvae to the next phase of development), but does not kill adult pests . It is effective against ticks together with pyrethroids. The consumption rate is 2 g of aplaud per 1 liter of water. Repeat once a week.

Thrips

Thrips footprints

Thrips are small flying insects, they themselves can not be seen immediately, but black excrement, gray skins from molting remain on the leaves from their activity. On the leaves - spots, silvery, but unlike tick-borne, larger, depressed, sucked like a vacuum - larvae eat the leaf from the inside. Leaf damage usually begins with young growth. With mass damage, the entire surface of the leaf becomes whitish and discolored. The main damage to thrips is caused to flowers, which are covered with spots and deformed, in addition, thrips larvae can hide in flowers. To avoid contracting thrips, do not bring garden flowers in bouquets into the orchid room. Quarantine all purchased orchids.

More about trips

Measures to combat thrips on orchids

The easiest way is to spill and spray orchids with systemic insecticides - actara or confidor. Dilute according to the instructions. Two treatments are usually enough to cure an orchid. If there is no actara or confidor, you can spray with contact insecticides (phytoverm, actellic, inta-vir, vermitek). Three treatments with an interval of 7 days.

You can destroy trips with mospilan - prepare a solution at the rate of 1 g per 3 liters of water, spray leaves and soil.

From folk remedies: 400 g of fresh celandine leaves collected during flowering, grind, pour 1 liter of water and insist for a day. You can use dry celandine 100 g of dry leaves per 1 liter of water. Infusion carefully spray leaves, soil, do not wash off.

Mistakes in Orchid care

Root decay, manifested in the lethargy of the plant, drooping of leaves, softening of the root neck - can be caused by excessive watering, watering with cold water, planting too deep, damage to the roots during transplantation, incorrectly selected soil. To avoid this, compose the soil so that it dries completely in 2-3 days. Do not water orchids before the velamen brightens (dries).
Brown or brown dry spots on the leaves - can be caused by sunburn, irrigation with hard water with chemical impurities, irrigation with cold water, overfeeding of fertilizers.
Black or brown spots are small as dots or larger, rounded or irregular in shape - caused by fungal or bacterial diseases appearing most often, as a result of poor air ventilation in high humidity.
Lack of flowering - primarily can be caused by disturbances in the conditions of maintenance, for example, an incorrectly spent period of rest, lack of lighting, too hot dry air in the room, etc., as well as when affected by diseases and pests, when incorrectly transplanted or planted in an inappropriate soil mixture.