Question concerning Thrips

[Magnus A]

Hello

On a Swedish forum there is a question about yellow larvae in a flower bud on a Epic. Fire Ball. There are some streaks of "silver" colouration on the leaves thereby the thrips warning. BUT do thrips comes with yellow larvae or can it be something else? Any suggestions. Unfortunate I do not have access to any pictures.

/Magnus

[camille1585]

I don't see what else it could be aside from thrips. They do have yellow larvae, and thrips are frequently found in flowers because pollen is their favorite food. Here are some pictures I took of the larvae and adults at work not long ago. These are seen under a binocular microscope, so actual size is 1-2mm. The silvering is caused by the adults feeding by sucking the plant cells dry.
These should be dealt with quickly as they are an important vector of many viruses.
I'm actually doing research on thrips for my Bsc thesis, so I see these little bugs everyday! I'm starting to really hate them!!

Hope this helps!

[Magnus A]

Thanks Camille

/Magnus

[kavanaru]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I'm actually doing research on thrips for my Bsc thesis, so I see these little bugs everyday! I'm starting to really hate them!!

oh Camille... you'll see... by the end of your thesis you will even find yourself saying: "WOW! That's a gorgeous one!!!" At least that happened to me when doing my PhD Thesis... I had to work for a long time with slugs (the redish fat one you have everywhere in central europe during summertime) at the beginning I thought they were disgusting!!! and somehow I still find myself in summer saying: "WOW! That's a gorgeous one!!!" (kulckily I do not get them in my plants )

Magnus: sorry for hijacking!

[Des]

Camille1585- Some questions regarding thrips:
I spray contact insecticides to kill them can they build up a resistance to the poison do i need to vary the type of Insecticide I use?
I also use an electronic zapper which is left on all night it seems to kill the most amazing array of bugs , do you think this would include thrips, are they attracted by the light? I also hate them with a passion I have lost more than one plant to suspected virus.

[camille1585]

I'm no expert on thrips, but here's what I know.
All insects can develop resistances, and thrips already have (but mainly to chemicals professionals use I think). Rotating is a good idea especially if your thrips are getting out of control, but changing brands is sometimes not enough. The active ingredient must be different, so check the label (getting into technicalities, normally the chemical group must be different, but I don't think that the info is the the labels of stuff us normal people buy). Watch out if your spraying indoors! Some insecticides are pretty toxic.

Also, you need to spray a few times at 10 day intervals to get the newly emerged larvae and adults knowing that they do a complete cycle in less than 2 weeks. (eggs and pupae are unkillable, and anyway pupae are in the medium).
I think that Neem oil and insecticidal soaps are effective as well.

We also have bug zappers at work, and kill tons of bugs, but I never paid attention if it got thrips too. It must zap some. Yellow or blue sticky plates work well too.

Something interesting I learned is that thrips are a natural predator of spider mites! Hope I didn't give you too much info!