Nice Ascda Cherry Pearl, pity about the leaves - why ?

[Dorsetman]

Ascda Cherry Pearl. Good size - like 8-9cm flowers, nice solid colour, good flower count (14 or 15 when all out) - but what causes this leaf damage ?
Looks like an insect , but nothing to be seen, even with a hand lens. Grows with my other Vandas, they don't have it. No pests in the house , worth speaking about - anyway, any scale make a bee-line for the cattleyas, any long-tailed mealy bug go for the nobile dendrobium hybrids, spider mite for the thin plicate leaves of Gongoras ... and whilst I do find them occasionally, none ever get to be an infestation and I never find anything on the broad-leaved vandas and Ascds.
Ideas , anyone ?

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Looks like a sucking insect like spider mites, Geoff. Anything under the leaf? The color and blooms on this Ascda Cherry Pearl orchid is stunning. So sad about the leaf damage. Hope you treat and get rid of this pest - what every it is.

cheers,
BD

[Dorsetman]

Well Bruce, the usual mite in UK - the only one I have ever heard of as a horticultural pest, is the so-called red spider, or false spider mite. My usual test for that is to wipe the leaf ( especially the underside) with a dampened ball of cotton wool. The mites show up as a red stain on the cottonwool even though too small to be seen with the naked human eye.
I have just been out and wiped all the affected leaves with the same ball of cotton wool, and no trace at all....will give them all a wipe withan insecticide tomorrow in day-light as a precaution, but don't think this can be it ; unless I eliminated them when spraying against scale etc earlier in the year, and now only their damage remains.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Hopefully this is old damage and not a living pest to continue to plague this beautiful orchid.

Cheers,
BD

[Tednz]

Love the colour it's stunning, I hope you find what is attacking the leaves as I have a Barkeria with the same markings,also I have never been able to stop it.

[pavel]

Lovely color. Pity about the leaves.

[mujacko2002]

Mabuhay!

I had that problem before yet lucky for me it just went away. I think if its not spider mites its ants or ant like creatures.

goodluck.

[Kmac]

No clue on the damage, but wow--what gorgeous flowers!

[Dorsetman]

Mabuhay!

I had that problem before yet lucky for me it just went away. I think if its not spider mites its ants or ant like creatures.

goodluck.

I did have an ant problem ,but eventually found the nest in a large pot of dendrobium ; that was eliminated a few months ago.
Our ants - here in UK - are mostly noted for collecting honeydew ( the sticky sugary secretion some times found around nodes etc - which in fact is plant sap exuded from stomata ) and they will/do/can "farm" aphids whcih also produce it. However I don't have aphids in the greenhouse.

[cdayinflorida]

Love the color and form. Haven't a clue on the leaf damage.