Beallara pbulb browning

[The Orchid Kid]

A pseudobulb on my Beallara Tahoma Glacier appears to be turning a little brown/red a bit on the the edges and the old one has some black marks.

Also I found a few snails and also this blighter on it. Any idea? Millipede? I did chop half off getting it out, so this is not quite the whole insect. Apologies for the squeamish for extreme close up of creepy crawly!

[Tim C.]

The crawly bug looks a bit to me like a grub, or maybe a really pale millipede. Here in the states, most of the millipedes I see are much darker, to almost black. The snails you want to get rid of like they were the plague - they'll burrow into the potting mix and eat off all the roots they can get at.

That being said, your orchid looks to be in really good health. The discoloration on the first pbulb looks to me more like a "suntan" - some orchids turn a red to purple color in bright light. It's not bad at all. The second pbulb's black marks also don't look threatening. Many oncidium intergenerics will get small black spots on their leaves and pbulbs over time, and other than looking bad cosmetically, they don't cause any problems.

-Tim

[silken]

I agree with Tim C.

[violetta]

I also agree, the orchid looks fine

[tatorger]

the bug is a centipede, it has one pair of legs per segment where a millipede has two pairs of legs per segment. if you see anymore of those i would leave them they eat the other creepy crawlies

[The Orchid Kid]

Thankyou all.

I was just checking the colouration was not a virus indicator. Another oncidium has the suntan too, so, maybe just a bit near the window. Good news on black marks just being cosmetic.

I am prolly going to repot in the next month in fresh stuff, so that's a good chance to get rid of the bigs without resorting to chemical control of the snails. The insect was about an inch long in all, so I am thinking not likely a grub.