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Hi everyone, Recently I noticed these little insects on one of my orchids. So far I tried getting rid of them by removing them manually followed by liberal application of soap water. Now they appeared on a second plant so apparently I was not successful.
Any tips?
That looks like scale to me. Using isopropyl alcohol and then wiping them off should usually take care of them. You just have to thoroughly search as they can also be hiding in the roots.
I guess the best solution for searching between the roots is repotting the plant? Also I assume only use the alcohol on the leafs, right?
Can you share a picture with higher resolution?
Are they mainly located in the substrate? Because those could also be springtails, which are harmless, but I can't see it from the one picture alone.
Definitely not springtails. I have not spotted them in the substrate so far, only on leafs. Looking at various scale insects on Wikipedia this one is the closest match I could find. Higher resolution on this scale is a bit difficult.
Whoops, I thought you meant these tiny black spots.
Yeah, definitely scale bugs. You can get rid of them using insecticides.
I can recommend you "Spruzid" made by Neudorff. You can find it pretty much everywhere in local garden or hardware stores, like Dehner, Obi, etc.
I like it because it's by far not as harmful as other (synthetic) pesticides, especially for pets. It's even fine to use it on veggies.
You can speay your phalaenopsis in it until it's completely soaked. Repeat that after a few weeks.
Often, pests are just a symptom of an unhealthy plant, so maybe fix the underlying issue first, like nutritional deficiencies or insufficient light.
I pretty much never have to fight pests with my houseplants, and even if I get a contaminated one, they somehow don't spread and just disappear.
Future goals 🌱