Molluscs like slugs and snails also cause a lot of harm to orchids, especially the potted ones, because of easy accessibility. Hanging orchids are safe. Slugs and snails become active at night when they sneakily eat away the softer parts. The easiest way to stop them from wreaking havoc is circling the pots with a line of salt. You can also use bleaching powder in place of salt, but before doing that please check whether its use is not banned in your area. No slug or snail dare cross thus line, as salt can be fatal for slugs/snails.

Ants too can put an end to your efforts of growing orchids. The moist and warms conditions around the orchid roots are quite congenial for them. I found them building nests inside the coconut husks and underneath the small pebbles in the pots. Once I even noticed a whole colony of ants shifting with their eggs into my orchid pots! Once inside they eat the roots and also harbour harmful bacteria and virus. A very effective way to drive away ants is to spray Kerosene oil on to the plants. I did not notice any harmful effect of Kerosene on orchids, but was quite relieved to see ants vanish. Kerosene also drives away other pests like crows, slugs etc.

Fungal, viral and bacterial infections are very common to orchids, mainly because of similar the growing conditions. Keep the plant parts such as leaves, flowers stem dry while watering, as wet parts attract fungal growth. If infected by vial or bacteria, immediately remove the infected part or segregate the whole plant. Personally, I am not in favour of using any kind of insecticide, pesticide or even weedicide. I have not used any so far, so I would find it difficult to advise on these, I would rather stick to the principle Prevention is better than cure. So take care, be healthy and live wise.

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Growth Tips (Pest Control)

9 hours ago by Mickie Anderson

Irradiated, sterile flies dropped over seaports and agricultural areas to mate with unsuspecting females save food crops and millions of dollars in prevented infestations and the ensuing eradication efforts.

But blasting these secret-suitor insects with radiation via electron beams, X-rays or gamma-rays, tends to make them weaker than typical malesand not so appealing to females as possible mates.

What sterile-insect operations need, says University of Florida insect physiologist Daniel Hahn, is the insect world's version of George Clooney: 52 years old, gray-haired and still dazzling the ladies.

Hahn, an associate professor with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, and his former postdoctoral associate, Giancarlo Lpez-Martnez, now an assistant professor at New Mexico State University, describe in research publications this month and last, that sterilizing insects in a low-oxygen environment helps create suitors who more closely resemble the suave Clooney than do those sterilized in a normal-oxygen environment.

"Our males (insects) are not only more sexually competitive, they are maintaining their sexual competitiveness and their virility, into old age," Hahn said, "and that has the potential to make them much better biological control agents."

The sterile insect technique, or SIT, has been used for decades and is considered a much preferable alternative to spraying pesticides over urban or suburban areas near major ports. In this biological control method, large numbers of sterile, male insects are released to compete with wild males for the attention of invasive wild females.

A female duped into accepting a sterile male would then find herself without offspring, thus trimming the population and its threat to the state's important agricultural crops. The technique has been used effectively against the Mediterranean fruit fly, called the Medfly, and the cattle-infesting screw-worm fly, among others.

Florida spends roughly $6 million a year using SIT to prevent Mediterranean fruit fly infestations, while California spends about $17 million a year. Because of the inherent dangers in importing even one Mediterranean fruit fly into the state, in their recent studies, Lpez-Martnez and Hahn investigated the physiological effects of applying low-oxygen treatments prior to and during irradiation sterilization on two other plant pests: the Caribbean fruit fly and the invasive cactus moth.

The "low-oxygen effect" has been known for decades, but the physiological basis for it had never been rigorously tested or analyzed, Hahn said. They suspected, and found, that under the low-oxygen conditions, the insects' cells would produce antioxidants that can help better protect them from the off-target radiation damage.

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Researchers demonstrate improved appeal of sterile flies that save crops

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