In reading Garland's post this morning, and doing my weekly Phrag. check, I found myself again wondering if it is just me, or if Phrags really are more pest-resistant.

I wonder what other's have found with their collections, but in mine, it is extremely rare for me to find any pests on my Phrags and much more common among my Paphs. In fact, I can only think of two or three instances of even finding pests, and always mealies, one instance of soft scale, never mites, on a phrag, and in those cases they arrived at my house with the pest, they didn't aquire them in my care.

Why is this? Is it just a fluke? Does it have to do with Paphs having much more succulent leaves that the sucking nasties enjoy?

Can't wait to hear from others on this.

Although I would be careful of using terms such as resistant without being sure of the mechanisms, we certainly have observed the same, Phrags seem to be the last resort choice for mealybugs at least (they are the only pest we've had to deal with in the greenhouses). Even within Paphs there seems to be a definite order of preference. Any album types are most attractive, we've always presumed that the disruption of the anthocyanin pathway has affected other metabolic pathways sharing those enzymes, probably including those producing phenolics. The brachys and parvis seem to be next, and for some reason Paph. sukhakulii seems to be a particularly tasty target.

It's like bleu-cheese on a buffalo wing....mmmmmmm.... goood.... I have found a few small mealies on my complex buds? I sprayed them with this supposed safe bug killer today. I should have opted for sevin. But this stuff ok in the house. If it doesn't fix my small problem, I will resort to the big guns with some Sevin, Duraguard and liquid soap. That's what Tom uses on scale and mealybugs. I will have to move all of my plants outside to spray them. That will be fun!

Has anyone used Safers Insect Soap with seaweed extract for killing mealies? It does say it is good for them on the label.
Thanks!

I never find any bugs on Phrags at the greenhous even on the flowers where aphids are on a phal righ near it.

Tadd,
Maybe it is just me, or the plants that I've used it on, but Insecticidal soaps have been detrimental to my plants. I've tried several, including Safer's. I recently threw them all out.
I find they caused rapid dessication of leaves. It has occurred several times, once a year ago, and once about a month ago. The only common variable is the insecticidal soap.

From now on, I'm sticking to water, mild dish soap such as Castille, and alcohol. Generally though, my issues are small enough to just hit w/ an alcohol soaked q-tip.

Bob,
Thanks for the info. Especially interesting about the anthrocyanin connection.

My pest-problem recommendation is always malathion. It's nasty to work with, but it does a great job (especially on mealies) and I haven't seen any ill effects on the plants.

--Stephen