I have pollen eating thrips.

[NYCorchidman]

Last year I had lots of african violet plants. One day I noticed small dusty area near the center of flowers. I took a closer look and there were many tiny little light brown bugs crawling about.
I killed most of them, but they just wouldn't completely go away. so I ended up picking up all the flowers.

Now I bought some new guinea impatients last week and they had this same little brown bugs.

Today I fonud these little bugs on my cattleya and dendrobium flowers. I killed a few but missed a few.
I guess since they are pollen eaters, they are not harmful I guess?

I read about how the black ones eat and chew on flower petals and leave ugly marks, not to mention potential cause of spreading virus.

since I'm a home grower, I don't want to use any chemical stuff. One source suggest that removing all the flowers and bloom and keeping it that way for about 6 months will take care of the issue for good unless they are reintroduced into collection by other flowering plants.

I don't want to remove all the flowers on my orchids because enjoying flowers is the whole point of having them for me.

Anyone ever had this brown thrips (pollen eating thrip) ?

[camille1585]

Adult thrips (at least for Western Flower Thrips, which are brown) and larvae to a lesser extent, feed off pollen as a primary food source if it is available. These are also the thrips that cause extensive damage to rest of the plant.

There are also predatory thrips that feed on pollen, but those are black, with red larvae. And they would not be in such large numbers.

[Bud]

my home remedy spray:

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon extract
10 drops dish soap
2 cups tepid water from the sink

put them inside a sprayer and add a cinnamon stick inside

*spray the whole plant including the blooms

make extra mix to soak the pot for five minutes to kill the eggs

repeat the process the next week

[camille1585]

Thrips don't lay eggs in the pot, only in the leaves/blooms. Larvae go down in the soil to pupate, but your drench wouldn't get them until they emerge, so better to treat the plant several times, which you'd have to do anyway.

[Bud]

right...you can do the spraying several times...my mix is not harmful to plants or humans...only to bugs...and I never want bugs inside my apartment...its just gross

[NYCorchidman]

Camille- The thrips are all light brown and I believe they are all larvae because they do not fly but crawl really fast once I start attacking them. I accidently damaged some flowers while trying to kill them.
For the first time, I saw one adult. It was darker brown and had wings. It either flies or jump away really fast, but I eventually followed it along and killed it. Yay!!!

I haven't noticed any damage on plants or leaves. but I'm worried in case they start sucking/chewing on plants and spread virus. so I better do something then.

Bud- thanks you for the kindly posting the recipe for me.
I found your recipe on some other thread last year and tried it. I love cinnamon so I loved it while spraying it. I also like it becuase it is harmless to me.
One thing I noticed is that the cinnamon extract leaves cinnamon coloring on my bath tub and never comes out.
Maybe I should put each plant and pot inside plastic bag and then spray over to avoid. I'm in a new apartment so my bath tub is all white at the moment.
By the way, do you know if the bugs die on contact or do I have to mist the mix heavily for a while to suffocate and kill them?

[DavidCampen]

Spinosad seems to be effective against thrips and has very low to no toxicity to mammals. It is available in garden stores under the Monterey Garden brand. Adding a nonionic wetting agent increases its effectiveness.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...tml#post404544

[Bud]

I am wondering why your cinnamon extract stains the bathtub...its colorless. It must be some of the coco chips in the media...they are the ones that discolor the water even several soakings
I spray flies and cockroaches and they die on contact with the spray mix...

[NYCorchidman]

DavidCampen- thanks for the info. I'll look into that.

Bud- my cinnamon extract is red brown. I got it at the whole foods market. When mixed with water, the mix turns red brown and red brown residue floats on the surface of the liquid mix. Wherever the mix sits, it just doesn't come off.
Where did you get yours and what is the exact brand or product name?

[NYCorchidman]

Bud- let me know the product name of the cinnamon extract you use. I got a new product. I asked for cinnamon extract but was given a cinnamon essential oil. Since it said 100% pure and it had no color to it, I just brought it home and used it on plants.

I'm not sure if bugs died, but they did walk away from it once I sprayed it on them.
The thing is the solution slightly damaged cattleyas bloom. I sprayed on dendrobium and cattleyas flowers and only cattleyas flowers developed this brown patched all over the flowers. and these are newly opened flowers, so I guess I'm stuck with the ugly flowers for the next month or so.

Everything smells so nice though!

I hope you see this and I get the product name for the cinnamon extract that you use.