Killing the pests or my plants? Mealys and Scale

[northernorchids]

Ok, my plants (and me) have had a very stressful year. We both survived the house fire last June. Poor plants went w/o lights or care in a smoky house for almost a week before I could get them moved out. Then they lived outdoors all summer. Fall/winter they had to live in the basement of our rental in crowded conditions but at least they had light and heat. During all this Mealy bugs started showing up. I tried to deal w/them but was to busy w/the house mess to keep up, so neglect made things get worse. Now we are back in our house and I'm trying to play catch up and I see scale has joined the mealys. A few plants I've tossed, others I've trimmed back dead stuff and removed ALL flower stocks (the flowers seem to be really attracting the mealys). I've cleaned trays, clips and name tags and sprayed them w/an insecticidal soap. I can't repot right now so I resorted to dipping each plant pot and all into a bucket w/the same insecticidal soup in it, then rubbing each leaf to remove bugs. My goal was to treat plant, pot and soil, getting into cracks and crevices that spraying wouldn't reach.
I've read on these boards to use a Bayer product that has a systemic in it, so I bought a Bayer product for fruits and vegs that is a systemic and plan to water all my plants w/that next week after they've had a change to dry out some. I may resort to dipping the pots in that also.
Any other suggestions? I hope I haven't killed them all, but at this point I figured the bugs were going to anyway.
I have mostly Phals and Oncidiums, a few Paphs, Pfrags and some misc. The Phals seem to have suffered the most.

[Zoi2]

Hello and welcome to the OB.
Increasing your air circulation, repotting in fresh media and sterile pots will go a long way towards pest elimination. A systemic spray will also help, is your fruit and veggie spray a 3 in 1? I've used it (3 in 1) on orchids and have had no ill effects but I don't know about the other, if it is "orchid safe".
Joann

[northernorchids]

Originally Posted by Zoi2

Hello and welcome to the OB.
Increasing your air circulation, repotting in fresh media and sterile pots will go a long way towards pest elimination. A systemic spray will also help, is your fruit and veggie spray a 3 in 1? I've used it (3 in 1) on orchids and have had no ill effects but I don't know about the other, if it is "orchid safe".
Joann

It is not one of the Bayer 3 in 1's since they have fertilizer in them and I didn't want to overdo fertilizer while trying to eliminate bugs. It does have the same systemic chemical in it though that the 3 in 1 products do and the label states it is good for mealys and scale.
I do plan to repot, but need to do that outside and since it is still kinda winter in my part of MI, outside is not possible right now. In the mean time I am just trying to get things under control.
Wondering if I should flush the pots w/fresh water when I'm done w/ the insecticidal soap or leave it?

[shadytrake]

I use the Bayer and I have found no ill effects leaving a bit of it in the bottom of my s/h pots. The only ones I flush are the Paphs/Phrags because they seem to be sensitive.

[Zoi2]

Interesting, I've never seen fertilizer on the label. Guess I'll have to pay more attention.
Joann

[northernorchids]

Originally Posted by Zoi2

Interesting, I've never seen fertilizer on the label. Guess I'll have to pay more attention.
Joann

I just looked on Bayer's website and they do make them w/o fertilizer, but the stores here seem to only carry the ones that do. They are for roses, flowers or shrubs and all the labels say they protect from pests, disease and feed the plants.
I went to 4 different stores before I found the 1 product I got w/o fertilizer.

[Rex Anglorum]

During my college years I worked for a large plantscaping company that leases and maintains the beautiful display plants in upscale business offices and malls--places that are not usually friendly to pesticides of any kind. My company's secret to handling both mealy bugs and scale was a q-tip, an old toothbrush, and rubbing alcohol.

The rubbing alcohol on a q-tip kills mealy bugs on contact. To kill scale you dip the toothbrush in alcohol and rough up the scale just enough to detach it. Pay special attention to folds, crevices, and seams at leaf junctions and also pull off any dry sheathing on pseudo-bulbs to reveal hiding places. The alcohol also takes care of the more mobile juvenile form of the scale if wiped over the leaf surface with a soft cloth.

I've never had this kind of treatment damage the leaves of any of my orchids. Don't soak the orchid with alcohol and be careful on the more grassy foliage types and you should be fine. Spot testing on especially delicate or thin-leaved orchids is always a good idea.

I'd be curious to know if others have had similar success using nothing more than rubbing alcohol.

Cory

[Zoi2]

I've used alcohol and q-tips for scale. It works wonderfully if you catch the plant during a light infestation, I'm not so sure with a heavy infestation.
Joann

[northernorchids]

Originally Posted by Zoi2

I've used alcohol and q-tips for scale. It works wonderfully if you catch the plant during a light infestation, I'm not so sure with a heavy infestation.
Joann

I was using alcohol in the beginning, but this infestation is to heavy to do that. I'd never find the pests in all the places they seem to have gotten.
It took me hours but I finished my cleaning job. Only threw away 3 plants. I was happy to see that only a couple of plants had scale and only 1 was bad. The one plant I didn't dunk was a Phrag because I discovered it had a flower bud coming up. This will only be the second time it's bloomed for me (it was in full bloom at the time of the fire, so I didn't even get to enjoy the first time). I looked it over and only found a few mealys, so I just wiped the leaves down and then watered it w/just a small amt of the systemic. I'll have to keep a close eye on it and catch any pests on it quickly. Once it's done flowering I'll repot and treat it more thoroughly then.
Now I guess I just wait and see how everyone does and keep an eye out for new pests.

[Discus]

I've been trying rubbing alcohol with scale at the moment; not sure if it works - if it doesn't, then I'll bring out the pesticides... I usually scrape the scale with a fingernail and then wipe quite hard over the area with a q-tip with surgical spirits on.