Spider mites! Please help!

[orchideya]

When watering my paphs I noticed some silvery trace on my paph bellatulum. I looked at the leaves with good light and found microscopic spots all over the leaf, just like small sunken dots.
After some research I diagnosed it as spider mites infestation. All my paphs are standing together in the basement, so I have checked all and found similar traces and spots on many, including malipoense with growing bud :sob:

What insecticide that is available in Canada would you recommend?
I read threads here about one from First Rays, but it is in USA.
What good do we have here?
I think i need to treat all of them, even the ones that don't show damage now. Is it safe to use on budding plants?
Good thing my new paphs from the show are still quarantined upstairs.

Thank you.

 

[SlipperFan]

Check with Ray -- he may be able to send Sucra-Shield to Canada. Otherwise, maybe Google will be able to tell you who has it in Canada.

 

[Stone]

Orchideya, Until you find a miticide, you can use alchohol/water 50/50 with a few drops of dishwashing liquid and spray this under, over the leaves and pots. I have brought mites under control doing this and it does not hurt the plants. You must repeat 3 or 4 times once/week. It will not kill mites that you don't spray directly. It will also kill/control bacteria and fungus.

 

[Paphman910]

Have you tried Safer's Endall?

Paphman910

 

[Stone]

Have you tried Safer's Endall?

Paphman910

Is that the insecticidal soap Paphman?

 

[orchideya]

Orchideya, Until you find a miticide, you can use alchohol/water 50/50 with a few drops of dishwashing liquid and spray this under, over the leaves and pots. I have brought mites under control doing this and it does not hurt the plants. You must repeat 3 or 4 times once/week. It will not kill mites that you don't spray directly. It will also kill/control bacteria and fungus.

Thank you,
I will try this.

 

[orchideya]

Have you tried Safer's Endall?

Paphman910

Paphman910, I never tried anything since it is my first experience with mites.
I had brown scale on vandas and managed to win with dishwashing liquid, although I think I damaged the leaves surface with high concentration, it looks sort of rough now and has lots of black patches.
I had mealies on Angraecum sesquipedale and killed them with alcohol swabing.
Mites seem to be the nastiest and need chemicals. Am I right?

 

[orchideya]

I didn't find Endall, but there is Safer's Rose and Flowers Insecticide at HD:
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/rode-flower-insect-killer-1l-rtu/909578
Would that one work?
What is neem oil used for?
Thanks again.

 

[Rick]

Also how much air humidity do you have in your growing area?

Unless these are the tropical spider mites, the typical mites are often symptomatic of dry conditions.

They have real problems surviving at the higher humidity levels favored by orchids.

 

[Wendy]

I use 10-15 ml of horticultural oil in a litre of water. It has emulsifier already in it so a good shake and it is well mixed. I use an electric paint sprayer to apply it, as it makes a nice fine foggy mist, but you can use a small pump spray bottle just as well. Not toxic and no unpleasant smell (as in neem oil) so it can be used indoors.

 

[Paphman910]

I didn't find Endall, but there is Safer's Rose and Flowers Insecticide at HD:
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/rode-flower-insect-killer-1l-rtu/909578
Would that one work?
What is neem oil used for?
Thanks again.

Should work as well! You will have treat it once a week to kill the mites and wait another week to spray again to kill the newly emerged mites and then again a week later!

Pot growers has lots of trouble with mites and they regularly post on forums about mites. They use EndAll.

Wendy suggested horticultural oil and that works the same!

Paphman910

 

[orchideya]

Thank you! extermination is planned on tomorrow - Saturday, beware mites!
Just couple questions on the procedure.
Do I spray the whole plant, even the buds?
Should I cover the pot so media doesn't get sprayed, or media SHOULD be sprayed too?
Do I spray and leave it, or wash it off after some time?
Thanks a lot

 

[Erythrone]

After reducing the number of mites with oil or soap, maybe you should introduce auxillaries like this one:

http://www.naturalinsectcontrol.com/product.php?id=000000321

I must say I use Botanigard for thrips and mealybugs control on Paphs. So I don't introduce auxillaries on them. But I introduce auxillaries regularly on the other plants (including the mite predators, and only once a year. They are very effective for me)

 

[Paphman910]

Thank you! extermination is planned on tomorrow - Saturday, beware mites!
Just couple questions on the procedure.
Do I spray the whole plant, even the buds?
Should I cover the pot so media doesn't get sprayed, or media SHOULD be sprayed too?
Do I spray and leave it, or wash it off after some time?
Thanks a lot

You spray the whole plant: leaf, stem, buds! You don't need to spray medium! A little spray on the medium won't affect the plant! You don't need to cover the medium up to spray it!

Spray and leave it, does not have to be washed off!

You may want to wear a breathing mask as it can make you cough if you breathe in the spray by accident!

Paphman910

 

[Wendy]

I make sure the whole plant is covered...however I am careful spraying buds and flowers as they can be damaged. Horticultural oil is my choice as it helps combat the dry indoor air humidity. I don't use a mask with a hand sprayer but I do when using the electric paint sprayer as it creates a fine mist. There's no need to wipe the leaves as long as you don't overdo an oil application. I should also add that I repeat this treatment once a month. Don't worry about getting it on the medium.

If it is just spider mites you are treating there is no need to use an insecticide. The oil will create a moist environment and they only live in low humidity.

 

[Paph_LdyMacBeth]

I second Wendy's suggestions.
One more suggestion is that you block the light source or turn the lights off for the day you spray. The reason why I suggest this is because the oil can magnify the heat and intensity of the light and sometimes cause burns. You don't want to spray at night though because it can cause rot if stuck in the crowns.

 

[Justin]

Have you seen any actual mites? Use a jeweller's loupe to find them.

Be careful if spraying with dish detergent, it needs to be very dilute or it can damage Paph leaves. With hort oil also don't spray with lights on.

I have found the pyrethrin with horticultural oil is very effective on mites for a small collection.

 

[orchideya]

Thank you for the advices. I didn't actually see the mites, just traces of their existance.
Well, I have done it already. I did it in the basement sink, the light there is not so bright. I found Safer's Endall at Rona store, the concentrated version. I dilluted it in the water as instruction suggests and sprayed plants all over. My paphs share the space witn masdies, so I sprayed them too.
Now I am thinking to spray my catts and vandas, they are actually far from paphs, but sometimes meet with them during watering.
Would it hurt them? Also how phals would react to Safer's Endall. I feel like spraying every orchid in a house.

 

[Justin]

you should wait a few days to ensure there is no phytotoxicity.

 

[cnycharles]

um, I may be too late, but don't use bayer rose and flower to treat mites. if it is their imidacloprid product, the systemic chemical imidacloprid doesn't kill mites and has the unfortunate side-effect of causing the mites to have a population explosion! definitely an odd result of using a pesticide....