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Some kind of undesired bug is moving around in the orchid bark inside your pot. Due to that clear-plastic pot, you’re seeing more and more of them. Frankly, you wish now that you hadn't invested in clear pots.
What are they? Insects? Pests? Overgrown Bacteria? Whatever it is, it’s not supposed to be there. Before you freak out and spray the entire orchid shelf with Raid, let’s identify the creatures to better eliminate them.
This article will focus on the specific bugs found in orchid bark. The pests and insects that inhabit the orchid bark potting mix are: symphyla, springtails, soil mites, psocids, and scale. The potting medium can be fir bark, pine bark, redwood bark, cypress bark, or any type of store-bought bark.
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You invested in clear plastic pots
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and that is perfect because you can see those roots, you can see how healthy your orchid is growing
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But then all of a sudden you see this little critter walking around on your orchid leaf inside those pots
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And before you freak out, I'm going to go over what could that possibly be
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that is inside your orchid if your potting media is orchid bark
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Now there is a whole nother video on sphagnum moss, the creatures that inhabit sphagnum moss
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You can watch that up here. But this one I'm gonna be specifically talking
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about orchid bark, the critters that love bark and will love to infest it
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Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews and thank you for watching this video at Orchidaria, where I share my tips
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of how to grow orchids indoors. And that's my assistant, Midnight, more like my boss, she makes sure I get these videos out on time. The most common five insects
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that will infest your orchid bark are these. Symphylla, springtails, soil mites, tsaucids
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and scale. So we're going to go over those one by one. Now these little creatures are incredibly
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fast. They will not be slow and they will not be on the leaves or on the buds or flowers, blossoms
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they will be strictly in the bark. That's because they love orchid bark. They love any kind of bark
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for that matter. Now their real name is this down here which I will not start to pronounce
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but they're easier known as symphyla or symphilin with an n at the end. What attracts these symphyla
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to your orchid bark is two things. First they love to chew on tender roots and they love to chew on
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fungus. So you might have a 50-50 chance here that your potting media is really good and your roots
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are nice and healthy. That's what attracted them. Or the other chance is that your potting
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media is very broken down and there is fungus inside your pot. So that is what is going to
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attract these symphyla to it because they're going to chew on the fungus. Now either way
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they're not good to have in your pot. They are extremely hard to detect if you do not have a
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clear orchid pot because there are no visible signs that your orchid has them except for the
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stunting. You know it's not like your orchid's going to turn yellow or it's going to flop over
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It's just going to not grow as much. It stunts the growth. So your orchid is actually suffering in
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silence slowly as these little symphylla chew on the roots and when you go to
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repot in two years, wow you have none. Now these little insects are actually
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anthropods They look like little centipedes They will have six to twelve legs on them and they are 1 eighth of an inch long or 0 centimeters long So you actually can see them walking around and they do molt their exoskeleton in time so they will
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leave behind a trace. If your little white speck does not move inside the orchid pot, it could be
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that you're looking at their exoskeleton that they molted. Why is it important that I mention
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they're anthropods and not insects because insects respond to insecticide. These little dudes do not
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So you can spray them with every insecticide that you have. They will not respond. What they do
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respond though is to light. So put them in a bright light and it will kill them. They like the orchid
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bark because it's dark. And the other best method actually than putting them in bright light is
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repotting because then you're going to get rid of them for once. You get rid of all the old bark
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where they hide and do all their daily activities and you get rid of that, put new bark in, and
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you're done. If you want to go to the extreme, since these little anthropods are photophobic
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that's why they don't like the light, you can repot in a semi-hydroponic setup. Put them in a
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clear vase that, you know, sunlight's just going through them. You'll easily see them and you'll
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get rid of the bark, which they so love. But of course, your orchid also loves it. The second
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insect that is going to infest your orchid bark is springtails. They also love sphagnum moss. So
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they're also included in the other video about what kind of critters are living in my sphagnum
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moss. And they're beneficial to your orchid. These little dudes love to jump and they are going to
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You're going to identify them because they are jumping around in your orchid
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And they're great to have in your orchid pot because they actually chew on the dead and decaying material
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Springtails are bought and sold in places where you build vivarians, terrarians, paludarians
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because they feed on the dead, decaying leaf litter. They also feed on the moss and on the fungus and on the bacteria
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They're like the cleanup crew that do not harm your orchid at all
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So if you see a springtail, you're in luck. Consider yourself blessed to have these little creatures
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Do not kill them. If the infestation of springtails is too much, you can use sticky tape
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I like this method because they are jumpy little creatures. They will jump from pot to pot
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Just keep up your sticky tape around your orchids and they'll eventually jump into them
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The third little critter that is living in your orchid bark is probably a soil mite
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Now these are different than spider mites. Soil mites live in humid forests where there's a whole layer of leaf litter and moss and decaying leaves and twigs that protect them
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And there also a lot of fungus and bacteria and mold growing all in those areas and also algae and that is what attracts these little critters to your orchid bark Now these critters are similar to ticks they look like a tick somewhat and they are more
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attractive to mulch. So if you are tempted to use mulch don't, and I explain why in this video up
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here, but mainly because it degrades way too fast. But they are more attracted to mulch than they
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are the orchid bark itself. So why are soil mites a problem? Because they actually do not do any harm
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to the orchid. They are the cleanup crew. They are eating all the fungus inside your orchid potting
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media. So they're good, but they do signal that something is wrong, kind of like the fungus gnats
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do. They signal that your pH is off and that pH is decomposing your potting media quickly and there
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is too much fungus inside your pot. That's what attracted them there in the first place. The best
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treatment for this is to actually repot the whole orchid, take out all that old potting media, put in
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new potting media, and spray it with an insecticide or pesticide or any kind of other side that you
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have. A common one that I use a lot is Phyzan 20, and Phyzan 20 does get rid of the majority of the
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insect problems and other pest problems too. And it also gets rid of bacteria. So that's the great
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thing about Phison 20. The fourth little bug that is probably in your orchid bark is called a sosed
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with a silent P in the front of it. Now a sosed is most commonly found, you know, if you think of an
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image of an old barn that is falling apart and it's rotting and it has lots of humid wood inside
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there, this is where the sosed is going to be the happiest. But inside your potting media, it's also
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going to be happy because what attracts the sosed to your potting media, the orchid bark, is the high
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humidity. These little insects cannot live where there is not high humidity. Now we can't take all
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the humidity out of your orchid because not only killing the sosed, it will kill your orchid too
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So we have to treat it with something else. Now sowsids are extremely small. They are 0.03 to 0.2
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inches, which is one to six millimeters long. They are very, very tiny. So you probably won't see them
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walking around too much. And they are, as I said before, attract to old wood. Now, if you have your
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orchids indoors and do not place them outside in spring and summer, you might be wondering
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how did I get this little critter in my pot? Well, one way is that if you moved into a new house
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and lots of these houses that are made in wood will have sosed in them. And if that is the case
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just relax because in about three to six months they will all die off because they cannot live environments that are not humid Now these little critters can come in all kinds of colors yellow brown white pink green It just
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they blend in with whatever environment they are. They're not like chameleons, but they do have
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a whole bunch of array of colors. So how to get rid of them? The best treatment is just to repot
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Now, if you are taking your orchid outside and bringing it back in, the best way to do this before you bring them back in for the winter is to actually not water them for four days
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Now, some orchids can take a hit. Most orchids do not. They can stand four days without water
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The soseds cannot. So that is why they will die off. And they're very easy to kill
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Just take away their humidity. and they die. The fifth insect is the hardest to get rid of. Scale. Now scale can look like little
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bumps on your orchid leaf. They do not move in your presence. Of course they will move later
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Shy little things. And you can scrape them off with your fingernails. Now scale are the worst
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that little pests that inhabit the orchid bark because they are so hard to get rid of. Well these
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little things are very resistant to almost everything you actually put them through and
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they reproduce like rabbits. So every three months you will have a new infestation of hundreds more
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scale. And scale will start as little brownish spots on top the leaf but they keep growing and
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they look like there is a little bump on your leaf that you might not even suspect that is a living
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creature, but it is. There are commercially produced products, which you can see right here
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that say they treat scale fine, but I've found why waste your money? Just get soapy water and scrub
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your orchid down. Really soak that orchid, but soaking won't actually do it. You'll have to
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soak and scrub the leaves. Make sure that those scale actually come off. They are kind of hard
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They're not hard to remove, but you don't think that you just, you know, a soft wet cloth is going
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to take them off. You're going to have to, a toothbrush, a soft toothbrush works excellent
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for this. One thing that is important about scale is isolate your orchid because scale is so hard to
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get rid of and it does do damage to your orchid but slowly. But the problem is once one orchid
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gets it, they all get it. I mean it's, there's a phrase that says always be nice to people because
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you never know if they're dealing with scale on there, or mealybugs, or aphids, or fungus gnats
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I mean there's always something, right? And since dealing with insects is so hard and pest and not
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really knowing what is on or in or underneath our orchid, here are two more videos that I can suggest
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to enhance your orchid knowledge about what is on your orchids. Thank you so much for watching and
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happy cultivating
#Home & Garden
#Pest Control