Mites (not spider mites)...?!

[flowerpower]

I think you’re on the right track. Hypoaspis miles looks a bit darker than these but they seem to just be eating anything dead or decaying. I don’t think they are hurting the orchid. I suppose I should just ignore them then as long as they don’t get out of hand....

[Manu]

Originally Posted by flowerpower

I think you’re on the right track. Hypoaspis miles looks a bit darker than these but they seem to just be eating anything dead or decaying. I don’t think they are hurting the orchid. I suppose I should just ignore them then as long as they don’t get out of hand....

H Miles can have some color variations. If they don't seem interested in your leaves, if your leaves don't show signs of sap eating insect, if they roam in the first inch of your media, there is a good change it's that. I wouldn't ignore it, I'd try to get an ID. And I wouldn't worry if the population becomes large, but you'd need to understand what they are feeding on to strive. What I mean by that is they need food to survive, if they are surviving.on debris alone, the population shouldn't strive. Are they feeding on gnats? If so you probably have a watering issue, on springtails in pots, you might have a decaying media issue, etc etc. Overall, if it's Hypoaspis Miles, it's not a bad thing as they are beneficial natural predators.

[Manu]

I looked in my old photos from when I was trying to ID them.. I don't know if this helps, but here's a shot of them roaming outside a pot where I zoomed in so you can see them well enough and one not zoomed it to give you an idea of their size

[greenpassion]

Wow. So glad I found this thread. I have several mature and young dendrobium can ganem's that I think have mites. I'm at work so I can't post pictures but the leaves have like a dust that I can not rub off it's a silvery sort of Sheen. They are in a room that doesn't get the humidity that my kitchen / living room area get for my phalaenopsis orchids. So the air is drier and cooler. I hope this is not an appropriate for me to be spotting in here in to this thread...

[estación seca]

In my conditions, thin-leafed Dendrobiums are more susceptible to spider mites than are Phals. Spray the entire plants, upper and lower leaf surfaces and stems, right away, with alcohol 70% or 1 teaspoon / 5ml liquid dish soap in a quart / liter of water. Then come back and read more about spider mites here in the pest forum. You will need to treat again in 4-7 days.

[greenpassion]

Will do.

[rbarata]

You will need to treat again in 4-7 days.

And repeat for 3 to 4 weeks.

[greenpassion]

What would the ratio be of alcohol and dish soap be for a gallon of water?

[Dollythehun]

Miss Orchid Girl has a video on this. She used a two liter pop bottle, filled it mostly full of water, added a coffee cup of alcohol and a tablespoon of dish soap. It was not a precise recipe.

Remember, mites can hide in the paper part of the sheath so she siajs them down pretty good. My temptation is to apply it too often, that's dangerous too because you can eventually wash the cuticle off the leaf, damaging he leaf. (I think leafmite told me that). If you use the search engine here, it will answer a lot of your questions.

[rbarata]

For the dish soap the ratio is 5 ml (soup spoon) for a liter of water.
For the alcohol, use 5%.
You should use both, dish soap and alcohol mixed together using the concentrations above.