All that scrub-a-dub does not get the bugs out of the roots and plant
medium.

You can use natural nicotine (sulfate), if you can find it. called
balck leaf 40. not on the us market.

You can try Bayer tree & shrub insect control. it is the least
expensive way to buy imidacloprid. this is called synthetic
niclotine, amoung other things. Use as a systemic.

Mix in with your regular ferterlizer, and soak the growing medium.
Needs 3 or 4 weekly treatments. I presume this is because orckids do
not injest like a lot of other green leafy plants.

The stuff is avaliable at home depot, and lowes, and is not very
expensive for a very large amount.

On 13 Mar 2006 06:56:51 -0800, "mmccaws2" wrote:

A funny thing happened on the way to putting an home addition and
looking into increasing the size of my humble greenhouse. I became
super sensitive to everything that has most man-made VOCs. Paints,
perfumes, insecticidal soap, and unbelievable number of things I can't
be exposed to for more than a few minutes, if that.

So now mealy bugs are terrorizing my plants, but I can't use standard
neem oil or insecticidal soap. Any suggestions before I loose my
entire stock?

I did see cooking oil and dishwashing oil. I can tolerate Dr Bonner's
castille soap, might that be a substitute for dishwashing soap. Are
there any unscented dishwashing soaps? My plants and I would welcome
any suggestions.

Thanks

Mike