Thrip identification - Orchid Board

Shadeflower · #1 09-12-2021, 11:06 AM

If someone wants to take a guess identifying which thrip variety I have, I managed to get a good picture while drowning this one.

here is a downloadable thrip identification chart

New thrips identification poster available - WUR

Clawhammer · #2 09-12-2021, 11:27 AM

Sure its a thrip? looks a little short and fat to be a thrip to me.

WaterWitchin · #3 09-12-2021, 11:42 AM

I looked at the chart, but agree with Clawhammer. It's super hard to tell, and I'm FAR from having entomology, but it doesn't seem to have the right body segmentation. Closest I could see was Western Flower thrip based on coloration, but the body part doesn't seem right.

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Cool chart, by the way. Imma save it!

BobcatJohnson · #4 09-12-2021, 11:53 AM

Are you certain it is a thrip and not a springtail?

Shadeflower · #5 09-12-2021, 01:05 PM

I am 99% sure it is a thrip yes

or lets put it differently, I am 200% sure it is not a springtail.

I have guessed a palm thrip just because the antennae are quite far apart so it can only be the palm thrip or the banded greenhouse thrip and they do not have the eyes of the banded greenhouse thrip.

They start off seethrough and then progessively turn brown. There are pictures of the damage they leave on that chart which I know I haven't shown - the damage can be random but resembles that of the palm thrip the most. They multiply in about a week in hot conditions and slow right down in cold.

I know it doesn't help me but at least I can now print off a "MOST WANTED" poster with a picture of the culprit outside my grow room.

WaterWitchin · #6 09-12-2021, 06:54 PM

I wondered about palm thrip (coloration) but body still seems to be a bit different. If you put up a reward poster, would you please in advance send me the drowned bug?

!

Shadeflower · #7 09-12-2021, 07:08 PM

I swear they are the most annoying thing. I have established it takes 3 "orchid baths" per orchid to completely erradicate them, with 1 and 2 week intervals between them.

I should take a picture next time. I've never seen anyone else post themselves doing it, I've only read people do it but mine end up looking like they are having a little bubble bath, then they get rinsed off. I've been at it every night for a month straight.

I also know where most of them came from but I know I got some from elsewhere too so I won't point any fingers.

I think one place has got a serious problem though, I've just lost track of which orchids I have treated, which need further treatment so I know this isn't the last of them yet

Shadeflower · #8 09-12-2021, 09:18 PM

I polled some thrips to see what their favorite part of an orchid was and they all agreed the flowers are the most delicious so I asked them what about if there aren't any flowers about and they said freshly growing root tips were their second favorite

Ok that's my form of humor as I was inspecting one of my prized phals that has been suffering worst, I noticed something shiny on the root tip and yes there was one munching on the freshly growing root tip.

So many times this year I attributed root tips dying off to a too wet media and it turns out it was most likely these thrips every time.

WaterWitchin · #9 09-13-2021, 10:29 AM

Oh MY! Ya know, I was telling someone a ways back that I'd never seen a thrip anywhere... inside or outside... and had no idea what they looked like. I thought scale or mealybugs were a pain. I never EVER want to see a thrip in person now!! Yikes!

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PS Now I feel itchy. Sounds even worse than when you get that little trail of ants going across the kitchen countertop.

Roberta · #10 09-13-2021, 01:56 PM

Yikes! Now I don't feel so bad about the ones I get that just trash the flowers. And photobomb some of my pix, when I don't notice them until the photo is up on the big screen. SF, yours are really nasty!