Oh no! Pests.

Heavy pest attack on my small Bulbophyllum ambrosia:



What the heck are they - scale or mealybugs, or evil combination of the two?



I was re-potting it last week and was so excited about new roots growth that didn't pay attention to the start of this invasion. That's annoying -should be more attentive next time.

I pulled plant out of the basket, scrubbed all bulbs with toothbrush and 70% rubbed alcohol, washed basket with dishsoap and repotted into fresh sphagnum.
Isolated plant from other orchids and will keep a close eye - if they will come back.
Hope not.

Mites attack

Nowdays I am busy fighting mites on my paphs. Good thing they are on totally different level, isolated from my other orchids.
I never saw the actual bugs but here are the symptoms.
Rusty orange traces on the leaves:



And underside:



Indented damages on the leaves:



All the above pictures are of one plant - Paphiopedilum emersonii II, it took the most damage.
I am annoyed at the bugs for ruining my paphs and mad at myself for not paying attention - I probably could check on them more often and notice those pests traces before it's gone so far.

I have used the Safer's Endall insecticide on Monday, then yesterday. Then I freaked out that insecticide could collect in the media and damage the roots. So I unpotted each of them, washed thoroughly plant and pot and potted into fresh chc.

I think I am going to repeat Endall next weekend, meanwhile - will use cotton swab with alcohol to wipe the plants every third day.

I don't know what else can I do.

Various problems with various orchids

Here is what I noticed recently and I don't like it:

1. White spots on several paphiopedilums leaves.
Micranthum:

Malipoense:

Jackii(really close up):


2. Something (or someone) eats the leaves on my Masd. decumana. It originally came with one hole in the leaf, but now there are more holes:


Back view:


3. Masdevallia constricta has lots of small round black dots on the leaves:



All these orchids have two things in common:
a) they all live in the basement - a bit cooler environment, some sun very early in the morning;
b) they all were sprayed with Safers Endall miticide twice little while ago.
But there are over 10 more paphs and at least 3 more masdies with same two things that are perfectly fine.

Any idea?

Scary pictures

Well, I had this sago palm for many years. It would grow totally neglected, spend summers outside, winters inside, never any problems at all. Bottom leaves would yellow and die, but new leaves would emerge promptly:



Last weekend I needed to move it from the spot and noticed suspicious white spot on the top of one of the fronds. I looked at the back and almost fainted:




And here is the close up:





I took it out to garage in hopes that bugs will die in the cold and because didn't really want this to be inside around my orchids. Now I don't know if I should even bother to try and save it or just throw it away as is. I guess I could cut off all the fronds, but the pine-cone-like stem has so many rough creases that it would be impossible to clean them out completely, so I would never be sure that they are gone.
Should I just thorw it away?

Dreadful scale on ascocenda

I didn't finish yet to enjoy the blooms of my new Ascda Princess Mikasa Blue - and here comes the trouble - scale. The worst thing I had on my orchids before - mealies on the Angraecum sesquipedale that came ironically from the show too. Now - Princess with scale.
First I saw it on the flowers - brownish round shell covering small insect sucking the life out of my blooms:



Close inspection of each leaf revealed one more bug:



There was also some big bug on the flowers too. I don't know if it is related to scale - maybe he eats them(?), here it is:



I cut off the flowering stem completely and threw it away, scraped with alcohol the bug on the leaf and gave whole plant a warm bath in the water with dishwashing liquid bubbles. I don't know if soapy water wll kill the roots, but they were in the bath too.

Disturbing thought about other orchid in close proximity made me put my V. Robert's Delight through the soapy bath too (just in case). Both of them are somewhat isolated from other 'chids.

I read that scale is hard to get rid of without chemicals. Will see if it is true, maybe should go buy some insecticide. Oh, bother...

During research I found this great visual presentation on many orchid pests here: Pests of Orchids