Aphids! - Orchid Board

Tindomul · #1 05-17-2010, 11:58 AM

I have small green aphids that have attacked my beloved Masdie setup.
The setup if some of you recall, is a fish tank, open top, filled with 3 inches of water. I have one large taro plant growing from the center (Colocasia), and to the side I have a medium sized Anubias growing.
I chopped down all the Anubias except one leaf, and cut 3 of 4 leaves on the taro. the aphids were crawling all over them.
My Masdevallias and Pleurothallids are hung all around the rim of the tank, on the inside. In this way they have been getting lots of humidity (with the help of an ultrasonic mister). All of them had new leaves, and all the new leaves have aphid damage, so frustrating. The aphids leave little white circles that tell me where the plant was attacked.
Question, will this kill my plants?
I have also one plant sold to me as Sunipia bicolour, I think maybe it is really a Bulbophyllum bicolour. And today, I discovered it has a spike with two buds. the buds were being sucked on by tons of aphids. Do you think I will loose the flowers? Its so frustrating because this would have been my first bulbo bloom since I started growing these plants 5 years ago. And it would have been the first bloom for this plant since I started growing it 1 1/2 years ago.
I hate aphids.
I cleaned all the plants as much as I could, I no longer see any aphids, but they probably are around somewhere. I don't know what else to do. I am unwilling to use pesticides as that will damage my plants too. I just don't know.[/font]

johnblagg · #2 05-17-2010, 12:09 PM

aww man how unfortunate this is...I dont know but Im sure the damage on buds will affect them some even when the open will have some scarring most likley.I would get a no pest strip type flying and crawling insect killer and place it in the take and cover the top for a few hrs to let it get to work on the aphids rather than applying pesticed to the plants if it was me ...I use these on a regular basis for pests I find them at Home depo usually and have found them very effective for aphids and spider mites

AboutOrchids · #3 05-17-2010, 12:15 PM

I hate aphids too. They hitchhike inside on me from my garden, and next thing I know there's a coating of them on every spike, flower bud, and new leaf growth indoors. I've found that pure rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle works best for me. Of course the key is repeat every day until they're gone.

I've also tried lighting some incense inside with the assumption that all insects dislike smoke. I hope that encourages any remaining aphids to find another home elsewhere.

Tindomul · #4 05-17-2010, 12:18 PM

Thanks alot, both great ideas. I will have to keep on it everyday for a month or so. Right now, I only hope I get the flowers to open. I will be happy with them regardless of any damage.

barkingsquirrell · #5 05-18-2010, 02:41 PM

I second the rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. The little suckers (for me) died on first contact. I repeated the spraying every day for about a week of so to make sure every last one of them was dead. Followed up the week after that, checking each plant over to make sure there were no little survivors.

Side Note:
*The rubbing alcohol didn't do any harm to my plants.
*I used a Q-tip with rubbing alcohol on it for the aphids on the actual flowers, just to be on the safe side.

shadytrake · #6 05-18-2010, 02:57 PM

I like dish soap. 1 dime sized to a spray bottle full of water.

If you don't like that, go to the farmers market and buy a bag of ladybugs...They LOVE to eat aphids and will stay until the aphids are gone. That's what I did last year on mine and it worked wonders. They are the happiest pest control.

Tindomul · #7 05-18-2010, 03:09 PM

Thanks, I have not had the chance, but Im going to go ahead and do the alcohol in the spray bottle thing. I once tried the lady bug thing and all the lady bugs died on me. The aphids stayed.

boytjie · #8 05-18-2010, 05:11 PM

Safer Soap, which you can get at Home Depot, is totally safe on every orchid I've used it on, and pretty darn effective. It finally helped me get a mealy bug infestation under control, and I've also used it on aphids.

Tindomul · #9 05-18-2010, 06:31 PM

Really, thanks!

susiep · #10 05-18-2010, 06:50 PM

I really like alcohol in a spray bottle, too! Safe and clean! I love the Lady Bug idea, but the alcohol would be bad for them. Besides you need to get rid of those aphids ASAP. They will leave scars on your flowers for sure. Have you considered trying the Bayer (imacloprid)? I use it as a preventative and have had great success with it. It is a systemic and only affects the sucking insects. Not sure how to use it in a tank though.