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They are apparently not harmful to the orchids themselves, but I don't like having thousands of mites crawling around in my potting medium! I live in Florida zone 10a, and my orchid collection (which consists of around 35 total plants) lives in my sunroom. It's not air conditioned and stays very humid, and I keep the windows open year round for air circulation. I noticed the mites around a week ago, not only on my orchids, but all over my sunroom furniture, blanketing my cat's litterbox, etc. Thousands of horrible tiny mites ![]() I immediately removed all the orchids from the room and quarantined them in my bathtub. The mites apparently feed on mold, so I treated the whole room and all of my furniture with vinegar to kill any mold spores. I am still seeing a few mites here and there on my furniture, so I am spot treating multiple times a day with vinegar. I've treated my orchids with several applications of neem oil, soaking the medium and all areas of the foliage, however the neem oil doesn't seem to affect the devils at all. I figured that because neem kills other types of mites that it would kill these guys, but there are still a ton of them crawling around in the potting medium, even after 3 applications over the course of the past week. I also tried spraying the medium with a ton of hydrogen peroxide, which also didn't work. I had a hard time finding definitive information on killing mold mites other than removing their food source. My last resort is repotting everything, but I'd like to avoid that if possible, as I have several orchids in spike. Many of my orchids are oncidium types and paphiopedilums, which like to stay damp, so the potting medium is the ideal breeding ground for these mites. Even if I repot everything, I'm worried that the infestation will return if a few mites remain in my sunroom or on the orchids. Any advice on what to try next? I'm willing to resort to stronger chemicals if necessary. Thanks in advance! |
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medium, mites, mold, orchids, sunroom |
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