I might add some more info on false spider mites.
Water might help detach the bugs mechanically, but it is not useful and with enough pressure to detach them off the plant, I'm afraid the plant tissue might be all bruised.
False spider mites love water!
Red spider mites thrive under hot and dry conditions.
False spider mites (Brevipalpus phoenicis) thrive under warm to hot plus very humid (80-90) conditions.
In drier home conditons, they will still thrive, but the life cycle won't repeat as often and fast as it could under more favorable conditions, which is warm and very humid conditions.
Look closer on the plant surface and you should be able to see them, and even eggs.
Yes, they are very small, much much smaller than spider mites, which I have no problem seeing at a distance.
When I first saw false spider mites, I thought they were just some dust particle, but they were moving. They move much slower than red spider mites too, but they move around. That's when I knew what I was looking at.
With plants like multi floral paphs and other orchids like certain dendrobiums, it is quite easy to see them. Ok, some people may never be able to see them with naked eyes, but they are big enough to be seen.
I repeat, they look like a tiny little dot. They don't look like a bug to naked eyes.
With paphs like parvi or others with darker underside, it is pretty much impossible to spot them. One might see the damage showing up when there are these mites.
So far, I have only seen them on In-Charm Handel and some dendrobiums, and oncidium hybrids. With ondiciums, I tried washing leaves down with soap and alcohol, but with so many leaf crevises due to plant design, it's nearly impossible to get rid of them. Plus, the oncidiums I had were easily replaceable mericlones, so I threw them all away in fear of having mites spread on to other plants, more precious ones like paphs, one of a kind orhicds, right?
With Dendrobiums, it is very easy to wash down the plants, so I was able to eliminate them after a few washing with a few days interval between washing.
Now, paphs are also nearly impossible to wash down with the way the leaves are.
I sprayed neem oil based spray from home depot, and it worked.
This was all a couple of years ago.
I still take a very close look at the underside of the plants, all plants just in case.
I hate mites.
By the way, neem oil seems to cause a lot of burning issues on most other paphs and orchids for me.
So I wonder that product mentioned above, Azamax, if that product has any side effects.
So the bottom line, use chemicals that you can find.
Plus, in the meantime, I recommend what I did.
Each time you water your plant, wash the leaves with soapy water. It should help detach the mites off the plant. That would be about twice a week, right?
That really works great althought it sounds tedious.