Bought Avid to kill spider mites—can I dunk my orchids?

[ccole93]

I just spent 8 months battling fungus gnats (thanks to nematodes they’re FINALLY gone; BT did not work) and now I found spider mites infesting a couple of my calatheas, which spread to my expensive philodendron and one of my orchids.

I don’t have it in me to do the constant Neem applications or wipe every single leaf on two dozen plants that cost a lot of money so I bought a three pack of Avid, Forbid, and Floramite. To ensure the entire plant is treated I intended on filling a bucket and dunking them in the solution (wearing proper PPE of course). They said if even one mite survives it will create super mites that are impossible to kill.

I did do a soapy water wash on a few plants and they’ve perked up but it took a few hours to do. I considered predatory mites but they’ll take a few weeks to get here and reviews seem mixed. The fungus gnats were annoying but at least not abjectly harmful, but the spider mites have killed plants on me in the past, and I’m very attached to my orchids and other plants.

So could these be dunked if I dry out the crowns afterwards? Nothing is in bloom right now.