Members Who Display Plants at Shows Should Isolate and Check Their Plants
The Manoa Orchid Show is over. Members and friends who displayed plants at the Show should pat themselves on the back. Your plants made the HOS display a winner. One drawback with sharing plants at a Show is that you may pick up some undesirable critters. They may come from other orchid plants or from the vegetative ferns and other greeneries that are used as fillers in the display. One member mentioned that when she brought her plant home after the Show, she found the pot and media inundated with ants. In the short period of time, the ants had built a nest in her pot. As a precaution members should isolate and carefully check their plants before putting them back in their growing area. Visible or not, you may want to spray your plants with a pesticide to prevent the spread of a pest to other plants in your collection.
Aloha,
I met some of you folks at different meetings, and some on Saturday where I had the Little Fire Ant (LFA) display. I hope that everyone has tested their plants for LFA, and that we incorporate regular testing of new plants and materials. For more on these ants visit http://www.LFAHawaii.org. For a very easy guide on how to survey, visit http://www.littlefireants.com/Survey-LFA-public-2014-01-29.pdf. Thank you!