orchid society talk pest help please

I had a grasshopper get in the greenhouse and he ate a lot of leaf material before I found him and squished him.

 

Don't forget rats, mice and chipmunks. I have more problems with rats and mice than any other critters.

 

Here are some mite pics. I used Avid to get rid of them. I also bumped up the RH. Mites prefer dry environs, so I think that helped rid my grow area also.

They aren't very good images, but mites are small little effers.

 

Here are some praying mantis pics. These things are awesome, and they're beneficial.

 

Ferns, begonias, and oxalis. Not that I have any of that, of course.

 

I guess I'm lucky to have issues with only a couple of pests. Here's how I nuke 'em:

scale: After wiping off those that are accessible, I spray with 70% isopropyl alcohol & follow with an Orthene 97 (1.5 tsp/gal) chaser a week or so later. I used to battle a lot with scale but now that I use Orthene I haven't seen one in quite a while.
mealybugs: Orthene's ok but Merit 75 WP (0.25 tsp/gal) stopped 'em dead. Never had a recurrence after using Merit.
aphids: never had a problem
mites: Oh boy. I'm in inland California & I always seem to be dealing with mites. I'd venture to guess that at least 25% of the plants I get from nurseries in California come with mites. I used to get charged up about it but now I chalk it up to the dry climate & focus instead on control. I say control because I'm not sure eradication is feasible. Anyway, whenever I buy plants I now assume mites & other wildlife are in there so I hit 'em with a tank-mixed cocktail of Orthene 97 (1 tsp/gal) + Avid (2.5 ml/gal) + Tetrasan 5 WDG (0.75 tsp/gal). Avid's a miticide, Tetrasan's an ovicide, and Orthene gets the other stuff. I spray once a week for three weeks & quarrantine the plants for three weeks before introducing to the rest of the pack. This really seems to do the trick.
slugs/snails: never really had much of a problem - saw a few once but they seem to have left (or died) on their own.
thrips: no issue here either.

I use Cleary's 3336F (3.5 ml/gal) to deal with fungus-related problems and it seems to do a pretty good job overall. I frankly don't use it much.

Disclaimer: some of the concentrations I use for these pesticides came from trial & error or from recommendations based the experience of others. I've found that the concentrations listed on some of the labels only work for me at or near the upper end of the recommended dosage range.

 

Leafhoppers. I don't know if they're worth mentioning because they don't seem to be known as a common orchid pest. I've encountered a few in San Antonio attacking the softer tissues of Cattleyas - new leads and buds. In one case, buds and flowers were deformed as a redult and there was some color break in the flowers. Maybe it was just mechanical damage, but leafhoppers can also transmit diseases.

According to some info I found on the “Leafhopper Homepage:”

Leafhoppers injure plants either directly, through feeding which can damage plant tissue and rob the plant of essential nutrients, or indirectly, through the transmission of plant pathogens such as viruses, mycoplasma-like organisms, or other microorganisms.

Leafhoppers are one of the largest families of plant-feeding insects. There are more leafhopper species worldwide than all species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians combined. Leafhoppers feed by sucking the sap of vascular plants, and are found almost anywhere such plants occur, from tropical rainforests, to arctic tundra. Several leafhopper species are important agricultural pests.

 

Most of these pics I delete, but here's one - bacterial rot on a floof. It died quickly after this.