INDOOR PEST CONTROL:

[weiss]

I'm wondering if anyone would be so kind as to share their indoors growing pest control plan, with minimal chemicals? It should of course cover such pests as: mealy bugs, spider mites, scale, etc. Also if you use such items as: neem oil, alcohol, soap, physan 20, etc. please give the ratio for each mixture, what pest you use them for, and how often you apply them? I know this may take a little time, but I feel that a lot of indoor growers would appreciate a succesful pest control plan. Thanks in advance to all.

[weiss]

23 viewing and no reply? Does this mean that no indoor growers care for their plants with a regular routine, or that all your plants are always healthy, or just dead?

[Ross]

I don't have a regimen. I wait till I see signs of something then treat that. I use Safer Soap for the occasional mealy bug and Physan 20 when mold appears (rarely and then only in the terrarium on sticks.)

[Barbara]

I believe this is a good idea, perhaps people are assessing their collection and trying to remember what they have done that works for their particular environment and species.

I don't use chemicals anymore, instead I rely on mechancial or organic controls such as insect soap(Safer's) or a little dish soap in water for a soil drench. You must water your orchids before applying the soap so that it stays in the mix to kill the bugs more effectively. It is also important to make sure the soap isn't too strong or it may stress the plants. I usually allow 10 to 14 days between applications(mainly during fungus knat season in the late winter/early spring around here). For scale I have applied rubbing alcohal with a Q-tip to remove them, then sprayed the whole plant with bug soap/dish soap or a diluted version of the same alcohol. Repotting or drowning sow bugs are the only effective control I've found yet for these resilient critters! And there's always a few ladybugs and spiders here and there to get the ones I missed.

For fungus problems I have used garden sulphur, bordo powder, cinnimon (for cuts). I have recently used baking soda mixed with dish soap(a rose fungus cure) on leaf spot but I won't know how well this works for some time yet.

It's also important to avoid spraying when the temp. is too high, since this can burn the foilage of your plants. Many controls will also damage flowers.

Good air circulation and proper watering practices are always the best way to prevent fungus and rot. Keeping your plants happy is the best way to avoid bugs since they are natures control for the diseased and weak.

Wow, I think this is the longest post I've ever made!

[weiss]

Thank your Barbara. I know it takes a little time, but your info. is great! To further extent your post would you be kind enough to give the ratios of the treatments that you memtioned?

[Barbara]

Hi again. I usually just apply the fungicides on the wound directly. If it's sprayed on I just follow the directions on the container, being sure that the temp. isn't above 78degrees. The soap drench is alot less technical... a couple squeezes of the bottle into a bucket of water(which is about room temp). Then I leach them within a couple days. I usually use Ivory/Palmalive soap, they seem be the safest.

I don't like using the copper spray(Bordo) as well since it leaves such an ugly blue residue, but this is probably one of the strongest fungicides out there that is safe to use. I have also used Safer's Defender on outdoor roses, etc. to great success, haven't tried it on orchids yet though.

In the past we had so many bugs in the bark of our plants(we had moved them outdoors for the summer where they picked up everything) so we had to resort to using Diazonan! The orchids didn't flitch, but they smelled like death warmed over. Not a critter moved for months afterwords.

[failingflopsis]

Hello everyone. I'm new to this forum and this is my first post so bear with me. Does anyone have a cure for scale? I found some on my orchids today when I watered them. So far the infection was small enough that I manually removed them. Will they come back? What can I do to prevent this in the future?

[lyn]

So far with great success I have used 1tbs vegetable oil(any) 1tbs. alchohol and one tbsp of antibacterial dawn to a gallon of water. I only had it on one plant that I recently purchased and I used a soft toothbrush to remove the dots and then soaked it for an hour. So far so good. I also got rid of the potting medium it came in and mounted it on driftwood. I have been told that orthene is a good systemic and may use it when I put my plants back out by the pool because I have found I have that asian scale on my sagos and I think it has spread to my firespikes and anise shrubs so I am on the WARPATH! LOL! Good Luck! ~L~ P.S. If anyone out there has used orthene I would LOVE to hear what you think of it

[Ross]

While I haven't had infestations of scale, I occasionally see some especially on newly acquired plants. I just remove them with a q-tip or toothpick then spray the plant down with Safer Soap to get any jouveniles crawling around. I typically have a pretty clean setup, though.

[failingflopsis]

Thanks for the info. I keep looking and so far no more scale. Do they "live" in the potting material?