bug? What do I do?

[Dess]

Hi guyz,

I'm trying to rescue this Dend. that was just laying around at a friend's house.
Pls take look at the pics: is this a bug? How do I get rid of it?

Pls be so kind and explain step by step as I'm kind of new with sick orchids......


thnx in advance.

Dess

[ischel1]

I hope that pot has a hole in the bottom for drainage. Looks like some sort of scale or just old damage. Kind of hard to tell, can you get a closeup of the area. Also post a photo of the whole plant. If what we're seeing is all there is to the plant, it has been overpotted and needs to go into a smaller container.

[Ron-NY]

as Mary said it is difficult to tell from your pic...I am seeing quite a bit of old damage but can't tell from what by the pic and can't tell if there is new damage as well.

[orcoholic]

I don't think there's any kind of insect on the leaf now. It just looks like a bad dendrobium leaf that has seen better days. There is always fungus, bacteria and other bad guys lurking around, looking for weak leaves to set up house on. They can't usually attack healthy leaves, but can do bad stuff to weak leaves.

Look under the leaf. Is there any white fluffy stuff? If so, it's mealy bug. Take a white tissue and swipe it along the bottom of the leaf. If there's any red striping, you may have spider mite (doubtful because of your humid climate).

You can also take those 2 leaves off. It looks like there are enough other leaves.

If you just got the plant, you may want to spray it anyway to keep any problems it does have from effecting you other plants.

The above advice is good. Don't overpot and always use pots with a lot of drainage holes.