Best Thrips treatment?

[kiki-do]

Thanks Ray! Honestly, never heard of them. I will keep an eye out for sure. I have cool temps at night, about 60 to 62 degrees and wonder if they are less likely to invade. Sounds like they thrive in warm weather. It also sounds like they are relatively easy to rid of when noticed. I appreciate your response and also the many responses I get whenever I ask a question. This is a very nice website and happy to have stumbled upon it.
kiki-do

[Ray]

I have mostly heard of thrip damage in vandaceous plants in Florida, and have never seen one in my GH in PA, so maybe they are warmth lovers.

[camille1585]

Hi!
I'm doing my Bsc thesis on thrips resistance in hot and sweet peppers. So this little bug is something I know alot about! So here's my little contribution...

The most common species are the western flower thrips(WFT), the eastern flower thrips and the onion thrips. However, WFT is the predominant species and is also the most difficult to control. This makes is the most serious pest of horticultural crops in the world. It originates from California (but is now everywhere) and needs minimum 64F to develop correctly. 77F appears to be the optimum temperature. However, although everywhere, they overwinter in the warmer states or in GHs (commerial or other). But I think that they are really a prob for those in warm places!

They are easy to get rid of with a few well placed treatments if they are caught early, but If they remain undetected for a long time, then things start to get difficult, and are nearly impossible to get rid of completely! In the GHs at work we need to spray every 10 days to keep them under control (but they are always there ) The problem is that they are easy to miss since they are 1/20 of an inch...

Another thing is that thrips, especially WTF, are the main vectors of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus and Impatiens Necrotic Spot Virus. These are a big problem for commercial growers but I think that it's nothing to be really worried of for the rest of us (unless you've got TONS of thrips!)

[Phantasm]

Another solution for thrips is to use those yellow hanging pest strips, they really seem to like those!

[Ad Astra]

I've only seen a few- and none since I sprayed- but this is a ton of good info. Thanks.


Mike

[Sara]

Unfortunetly, the only method I've used and had success with was removing the thrip's source of food: the blossoms! The only time I had thrips was when I had some last summer on my african violets. Fortunetly, african violets bloom frequently!

[TROPICANO]

I am having a problem getting rid once-and-for-all of Thrips that attack mostly Cattleya flowers. I do have access to controlled pesticides but would like to ask for help from those experienced on this topic. Can you recommend a Brand-name product or an active substance ? Thanks much !

[euplusia]

Hello Tropicano, Spinosad is highly effective. Azadirachtin, extracted from the Neem-Tree, is also said to work.

[Dennis B]

Originally Posted by Ray

Insecticidal soaps, in my experience, aren't any better that ordinary dish soap in water. Don't waste your money.

A spray head in a bottle of isopropyl rubbing alcohol is also effective.

If you want to go commercial, almost any insecticide is effective on thrips.

Ive noticed a few of something slender and black thriplike crawling on the base of my Phal, but I read that thrips eat new growth and its not budding or currently flowering. Do they bother roots? I wonder why they are even on it.

Its been a quite a while since you posted this, but do you know if rubbing alcohol is OK if it is being applied near or over the roots?
Thanks!

[bil]

I use imacloporid. It's pretty good.