While most flowers spread their pollen to other plants, the new orchid is extremely exclusive and only mates with itself. This method of self-pollination, which comes in handy when winds are gentle or insects are lacking, adds to the variety of mechanisms flowering plants have evolved to ensure success.

Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation.

The pollen grains are transferred from one flower to another in different ways which are the pollination by wind, the pollination by insects and the artificial pollination.

Cross-pollination

But orchids typically have exclusive relationships with their pollinators. These are usually bees, wasps, and flies, but many orchids also utilize moths, butterflies, fungus gnats, or birds to cross-pollinate their flowers.

MEALYBUGS TREATMENT Mix 1 cup of rubbing alcohol with few drops of Dawn dish soap and 1 quart (32oz) of water. Pour the solution in the spray bottle. Spray the whole plant, not only where mealybugs are visible. Spray leaves well, top, and under and stems.

1) Neem Oil: Westerners have recently started using neem, but this tree has been a staple in India for quite some time. Renowned for its antifungal and astringent capabilities, neem oil the perfect natural insect repellent. It’s light, non-toxic, and protects your orchids from critters like spider mites and aphids.

Although Hydrogen Peroxide does have antimicrobial properties, it is not recommended for orchid care. The oxidizing properties of Hydrogen Peroxide on your orchid roots will burn and destroy the healthy velamen that protects the roots, hindering their absorption characteristics.

Chewing insects of orchids usually prey on plants grown outdoors.

• These might be snails and slugs, whose chewing behavior leaves holes and chunks out of leaves.
• Caterpillars make Swiss cheese out of leaves and even eat buds.
• In rare occasions, cockroaches or grasshoppers may invade outdoor plants.

Phalaenopsis orchids are not only loved by humans, they are also loved by sap feeding insects, spider mites, and some pests that like to chew on orchids. While not usually found inside of a home, slugs, snails, caterpillars, and grasshoppers find orchids to be a tasty treat.

Oil Spray: Mix 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and 2 tablespoons of baby shampoo in 1 gallon of water. This can also be mixed with 1 cup of alcohol to help penetrate the orchid insect’s shell. Shake well before and during application. Spray every five to seven days as needed, covering both sides of the foliage.

The fruiting bodies can be killed with any of the organic disease control sprays — baking soda, potassium bicarbonate, cornmeal tea, hydrogen peroxide, etc. Or, they can just be knocked down.

Snails and slugs, ubiquitous orchid pests, can inflict a great deal of damage to virtually every part of an orchid. They wait for the cover of night to wreak their havoc. Snails and slugs eat mostly flowers, roots and tender new growths, although, if those are unavailable, they will consume any plant part.

Molluscicides are pesticides which kill mollusks, an animal phylum of tens of thousands of invertebrate creatures. Mollusks include octopi and squid, as well as snails and slugs, which are usually targeted by molluscicides.

Metal salts such as iron(III) phosphate, aluminium sulfate, and ferric sodium EDTA, relatively non-toxic, also used in organic gardening. Metaldehyde. Methiocarb. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, highly toxic to other animals and humans, acts also as a contact poison.

Touching the snail or even letting one crawl on you holds no danger, as snails aren’t poisonous. If you like to eat them as escargot, however, you can’t just pick up a garden snail and cook it. Snails ingest dangerous chemicals, such as pesticides and snail bait, as they move through flower beds looking for food.

“Translaminar” is a term that refers to insecticides or miticides that can penetrate the leaf tissue and form a reservoir of active ingredients within the leaf, such as the spongy mesophyll and palisade parenchyma cells.

Broad Spectrum: developed to kill a large range of pests. – Most Chlorinated Hydrocarbons, Organophosphates, and Carbamates are broad spectrum insecticides. Ex. DDT. Narrow Spectrum: developed to target specific types of pests.

Benefits of pesticides

• Improving productivity.
• Protection of crop losses/yield reduction.
• Vector disease control.
• Quality of food.
• Other areas – transport, sport complex, building.

The broad-spectrum pesticide had already been banned in homes. Farmworkers and their children face even bigger risks of exposure to chlorpyrifos, which can drift through the air when it’s applied to crops. It also stays in fields for up to 18 days.