AboutWayne King Expertise Any question about orchid culture. I have thirty+ yrs of growing experience,president 2x of our local Orchid Growers Guild,held a position in most all other offices associated with the Guild at one time or another. Head of Orchid judging team for local club meetings and some shows. Member of two Orchid Socities and local Rep.for Mid America Orchid Congress for several yrs.I have in my collection about 800 Orchid plants of all types.
Experience
Past/Present clients Previously an expert on expertcentral.com.
Question I have 8 orchid plants. I noticed a small flying bug a while ago in one plant and noticed 1 or 2 from time to time. Today I looked closely and found several bugs in several of the plants - crawling in the moss and flying around when I moved the plant. I don't know what to do. I have read about applying isopropyl alcohol directly; or using a spray mixture of fantastik, isopropyl alcohol and water; or a mixture of cooking oil and dishwashing liquid. In both cases, they suggest doing this every 3 days for 2 weeks. Does that mean spraying the plant - and what about the moss? Soaking the moss? I am freaked! Should I get rid of the orchids? I don't know if it originally came from the moss or what to think. I'd appreciate any advice you can offer. Thank you so much.
Answer Gail, it sounds like you have an infestation of fungus gnats. The good news is that they don't bother the plants. The presence of these insects is symptomatic of a potting mix that has broken down as they like to lay their eggs in a soil-like potting mix that stays moist. While this is great for the gnats, it's not good for orchid plants. Obtain some fir-bark based orchid potting mix and repot your plants. Once you unpot a plant, discard the old potting mix, wash out the pot thoroughly, rinse off the orchid roots and remove any roots that are mushy. You should use a well-drained pot. The fresh orchid potting mix may be dry, so you may need to soak it for an hour to break down the water repellancy of the fir bark before use. As each plant is repotted, set it in another area, away from the plants that have not yet been repotted. Once you have repotted all of your orchids, you may put them back in the same growing area. If they are in vicinity of other house plants that also have fungus gnats, keep your orchids away from those until you have eliminated them from the other plants as well. Orchid plants like to dry out between waterings so, with fresh potting mix, watering once per week should be about right.
