Question
I have 2 orchids that have sappy leaves and brown crunchy nodules on the stems. There are huge amounts of these modules. At first look, I thought that they were blooms, but looking closer I see that they come off the stems very easily and they do not appear to be part of the plant. Any idea as to what they can be?

Answer
Thanks Tony for a good description.  Unfortunately those crunchy brown nodules are brown scale insects.  The one you described is the adult stage. You will also have these insects in the "Crawler" stage.  In that stage they can move about the plant before they form their protective sheath (ie brown scale) beneath which the insect lays hundreds of eggs. They feed on the plant sap-- hence the sappy leaves.  Unfortunately, these multiply rapidly and can destroy the plant if not caught and treated in time.  I recommend a multistage approach.  In stage one, use cotton swabs or q-tips soaked in rubbing alcohol to remove those insects you can see. You should be able to remove most of the adults and crawlers using this method (crawlers blend in more with the plant and are more difficult to spot).  Once you discover a crawler or two, you will become expert at locating and destroying them.  You will not be able to get all of the insects using this method as they tend to hide in difficult to reach places includng the potting mix.  So, just with this approach, you will find that having destroyed all of the visible insects, the next day, you may spot more.  

After you remove all visible critters, I suggest step two which is to remove your plant from its pot and take it outside and spray it with a hose.  Discard the old potting mix and pot as you will need to repot the plant in fresh orchid potting mix in a clean pot.  Before repotting, I recommmend that you submerge the plant and roots into a systemic inseticidal solution such as "Eight".  A systemic insecticide will penetrate the tissues of the plant and, hence, kill any remaining insects that try to feed on the plant over the next six weeks.  Be sure to wear chemical gloves when handling the insecticide and the plant during and after the drenching process.

Before you repot, remove any roots that are mushy (only good roots are firm and turn green when wet). Upon completing this series of steps, set the repotted plant aside in its growing area and let it dry out before watering.  Monitor the plant for reoccurence, but, hopefully, there should not be any.