jtill wrote:
Steve, I am sure your method will work but I thought soap was mainly to
block mites air passages and smother them. Same for oils. Strong water
spraying was to knock them off. I will keep in mind that a scrubbing
will help.
Joe T
Houston


Hi joe,
If you rub the leaves all over with soapy fingers the mites get mixed up
in the soap and rinse off completely. They are gone. I have used the
same method to get rid of brown scale on Phals and Oncidiums. Someone
once sent me some (free) Catts that turned out to have a fairly heavy
infestation of boisduval scale. I removed all dry coverings (which
revealed even more scale) and soaped up every surface of the plants. I
rubbed until all the scale appeared to be gone. I rubbed every surface
of every leaf and pseudobulb and the rhizome. Because of boisduval
scale's reputation for being difficult to eradicate, I waited a week and
soaped them up again. I never found another boisduval scale again. That
was about 4 years ago so, yes, they are really gone.
I could see this method being a problem on plants with areas you can't
get your fingers into. I've never had to try it on Paphiopedilums for
example. I remember using cotton swabs to get into the base of the
leaves on the Phals. They don't have a large number of leaves so that is
doable.

Steve