What's wrong with this Cattleya?

[butterfly_muse]

Evening, guys. I brought home a new cattleya tonight, and while I was inspecting it in the store it looked very good...it had a net over it's pot, though, so I couldn't see the pbulbs very well and when I got home, I found this (see pictures)...brown chunks missing out of them and yellow/white bumps all up the leaves...I ran my fingernails over the bumps but they didn't come off as I would have expected if it were scale or something.

I took it back and didn't get it anywhere near my other plants, but I want to know what exactly I was dealing with, especially with the leaves just in case. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Bud]

They should not sell these plants in its current state. It has mechanical damage from some rodent that took some bites on it causing fungi infestation on the bulbs and leaves.... what you thought was scales is actually mites....
you are lucky they took it back

[butterfly_muse]

Originally Posted by Bud

They should not sell these plants in its current state. It has mechanical damage from some rodent that took some bites on it causing fungi infestation on the bulbs and leaves.... what you thought was scales is actually mites....
you are lucky they took it back

Yikes!! I am glad! How..err...for lack of better wording, contagious are they? When I took it back she let me exchange it for another - I washed my hands but when I took it back to the store, I inspected a new one after taking the old one out of the bag and now I'm terrified that I had ick poison fingers..O______O; I have neem oil, should I spray it just in case? Obviously I'll keep it isolated from all of my other plants...how long would something like that take to show up? How long should this plant be in isolation?

The plants themselves were sort of grouped together but each one was in its own plastic bag, so I'm not sure how transference would work? I have only one other cattleya that I got there probably two weeks ago and it's happy, healthy and just peachy sitting all by its onesie in the window. Should I watch that too since it came from that store?

Now I'm totally paranoid T_T

[NYCorchidman]

Anytime you are not happy or unsure about the appearance of plants in question, it's best not to buy them.

At least for mental health. lol

Other than spotty and streaky leaves of certain oncidium hybrids, cattleyas are probably the most troubling plants I've seen.
Many of them I see have mytery marks and spots on the leaves or pbs. like almost black areas or swollen brown areas. and mottling of green tone on the leaves...etc.

I only buy ones with "suspicious" leaves and pbs with great flowers with no color streaks on.
Then I pay close attention on how the new leads turn out.

[butterfly_muse]

Originally Posted by NYCorchidman

Anytime you are not happy or unsure about the appearance of plants in question, it's best not to buy them.

At least for mental health. lol

Other than spotty and streaky leaves of certain oncidium hybrids, cattleyas are probably the most troubling plants I've seen.
Many of them I see have mytery marks and spots on the leaves or pbs. like almost black areas or swollen brown areas. and mottling of green tone on the leaves...etc.

I only buy ones with "suspicious" leaves and pbs with great flowers with no color streaks on.
Then I pay close attention on how the new leads turn out.

What I could see of it was fine, it was when I removed the netting around the pot that I saw all the rest. =(