I'm glad you brought this up because I was going to ask about mealybugs as
soon as I had a chance.

I noted a few of the critters in a Maxillaria tenuifolia. The plant is
moderately sized and thus has quite a large amount of sheath. Hidden in some
of the old (brown, paper thin) sheath are the bugs. There were some of the
bugs even hidden in greener areas. Should I have been removing the sheath
all along? There is quite a lot there to do this.

Also, will Neem oil help get rid of the mealybugs? I do not have orthonex
on hand, and wanted to use something more organic, and thus I sprayed the
plant with Neem. Will it help?

Thanks.

Larry


"Dave" wrote in message
m...
About a year ago I asked about an infestation of mealy bugs I had with
a newly bought phal. I just thought I'd let you know how I eventually
got rid of them. I tried the old 'dab them with meths' trick a number
of times but they just kept coming back, so not wanting to infect the
rest of the plants I thought it was do or die time (for the orchid
and/or the mealy bugs!). I completely immersed the orchid
(pot,'soil',orchid to well over the top of the leaves) in a warm
(~35C) solution of Sybol Extra(10%) for half an hour. I did this twice
within a week and haven't seen them since, didn't have to repot and
the thing hasn't stopped flowering since!
I didn't think it would survive the treatment, but orchids seem to be
a lot tougher than people give them credit for!

l8rs
Dave