Spider mites on my phal
 

I was admiring one of my mini phals this evening and noticed a few strands of silk going from leaf to leaf. After some close examination, I noticed a very small white spot near the edge of one of the leaves. Checked with the super high zoom loupe I've got and it was probably 20-30 little buggers hanging out.

Did a quick search and one treatment was insecticidal soap, which I happened to have on hand from an aphid issue in the garden. I drenched the plant as suggested, all exposed surfaces covered at least once.

I'm guessing there were eggs in the medium, I re-potted shortly after I got it but generally don't do any kind of preventative treatment when doing so.

After all of that, would it be recommended to change the medium and treat the roots or just keep an eye on this plant to see if they come triumphantly back? I checked the one other phal that is in it's general area and I did not see any signs of the critters on it. The only other plants in it's area since I notice it are sundews, which probably won't have a problem with some free food if they happen to jump ship.

I'm hoping that I caught this early and this treatment will help but I am fully prepared to have to repeat as needed. This plant will be going into quarantine for now, may do an additional treatment to CMA.

Similar to how catasetum would have panic attacks (if they were human) at the sight of spider mites ------ the spider mites would have panic attacks at the sight of water.

Water can drown a lot of those innocent spider mites. But since they can take out an orchid completely, we often have to do at least something to protect the plant.

For spider mite, you could consider that azamax product. I do have azamax, but haven't used it yet. I also have a product called 'Yates mancozeb plus fungicide & miticide' ....... not sure how their miticide works, but it stopped spider mites in their tracks whenever I used it.

If you managed to catch it before it spread widely, the insecticidal soap may be all you need. I was able to get rid of my spider mites using it. I didn’t repot after my initial repot into good media. I kept the plant isolated too. It took about 6 weekly treatments: thoroughly drenching the top and bottom surfaces, before I was no longer able to find any live mites upon inspection with a magnifying glass.

I think the eggs have something like a six day incubation period and the soap doesn’t do anything to them so a few waves are inevitable. After the first treatment, I had to work pretty hard to find live mites. My infected plant was a good sized Dendrobium nobile so there were lots of leaf axels they could hide out in.

For any treatment, it's really important to repeat once a week or so, for multiple weeks. Ideal is to use more than one product in rotation. But typically, sprays of any sort only kill the adults - so you have whack the subsequent generations several times to eradicate the population.

Thanks for the replies all, I noticed 1 small web on the plant this morning before I left, so this will be an ongoing treatment for now. Kind of a bummer since the plant is growing roots like crazy and a new leaf.

I'll keep an eye on it and see about alternative treatments that aren't super toxic (to humans and animals) as I'd rather avoid using a chemical miticide.

Avid will send them spider heavens. A 8oz bottle is about $100. It will depend of how many orchids do you have an how valuable they are. There used to be a guy on Ebay that sold small amounts way cheaper.
I got the tip form a pot grower in my hydroponic store and they really know their chemicals.