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Holes in orchid leaves


Question
Holy orchid
Holy orchid  
Over the last 10 days,I have found holes in my orchid leaves.
I cannot see any pests and have tried the beer thing with no sign of pests
Please check my picture and confirm what is eating the leaves--snails???

Answer
Anthony, the signs in your picture point to snails or slugs as the culprit. If you are growing this plant indoors, it is possible they are resident in the potting mix. Try dumping out the potting mix on a clean sheet of paper to see if you can spot any. If you grow in moss the moisture may attract, ditto for a degraded potting mix that remains damp as both conditions attract snails and slugs.  To solve this problem you will need to discard the old potting mix, clean the pot and orchid roots and repot from the fresh fir-bark based potting mix.  Before use, remove the fine dust-like particles in the fresh potting mix; then soak the potting mix prior to repotting.  The repotted plant should be left to dry out for week before rewatering.  The beer attractant works best outside of the pot before the pests enter the potting mix.

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