Death of unopened flowers in cattleyas

[Roberta]

I have used Orthene and had no bad effects. Bayer Advanced 3-in-1 was great, but the formulation is no longer for sale, They have another formulation that they're now selling in place of it... I can't vouch for the efficacy because I haven't tried it (when imidacloprid started showing up on "banned" lists I laid in a rather large supply of the original formulation so I'm set for several years, I use the stuff very sparingly and surgically for specific problems, not as a preventative) But the new Bayer product is worth a try as a broad-spectrum pesticide that doesn't seem to harm flowers. (If you get that, let us know whether it does the harm to bugs that it is supposed to)

I looked around, I think the new product is called BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Insect Disease and Mite Control Concentrate, there's also a dilute "ready to use" form (not cost-effective if you're going to use much of it but might be OK if you just want to try it)