Stupid Bugs!

[Heather]

Has anyone ever had Thrips?
Brian has been really helping me with this but I am wondering if anyone else has had these. We aren't really *certain* that they are thrips but they are acting accordingly.

They are either yellow and like a pin-prick:
.

or grey and look like this:
- --

They only like plants with besseae in the breeding and they prefer new growth.

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas? I can take a photo tomorrow of the "damage" (wah!) if necessary.

 

[Heather]

Okay here are a couple photos - they aren't great but you can see the plants look like hell.

Anyone ever sprayed besseaes before? They are such sulky plants, I'm concerned.

 

[likespaphs]

are you sure they're not mites?

 

[bwester]

Are they in the mix? Mine are doing the same thing

 

[Heather]

I haven't *seen* any in the mix.

I am quite sure they are not mites. They are not on the underside of the leaves, but in the crown. They move if you blow on them. They seem to leave a sort of greasy, honeydew like substance behind. They are yellow pinpricks or little grey 2-jointed bodies. I think maybe one is the larvae and one is the adult? I cannot find an adequate photo online though (they're all too highly magnified to help).

They are really too small to get a photograph of.

 

[bwester]

Get that Bayer household and garden spray in the tealish bottle. It has pyrethrins and oil and seems to work with minimal stress on the plant

 

[Heather]

Well, I'm going to use this stuff that Brian recommended, but I just sort of wondered if there was anyone else out there who had even had thrips before on their plants. I also wondered if anyone had ever had issues with besseae in particular and use of pesticides.

Phrags are usually so nice and pest-free, these guys caught me off guard!

Thanks.

 

[Kyle]

I've had thrips. About a year to the day I had to go to Montreal for 9 days and while I was go the temperature increase quite a bit. This caused the thrips lifecycle to go from about 3 weeks to 3 or 4 days. Needless to say when I returned the thrip population had exploded! Oh yeah, some of there life cycle takes place in the soil/media.

They can do a lot of damage. Two sprays of Malithion killed them dead!

Your description sounds like them, I never saw yellow ones, but I say black/dark grey narrow guys. They also leave little black shiney dots of feces on the leaf surfaces. They cause a lot of pitting.

I found that they attacked my paphs more then my phrags, but at the time I had way more paphs then phrags.

Heres some links...

http://ipmofalaska.homestead.com/files/thrips.html

http://www.ipmofalaska.com/files/greenhousebulletins.html

Good luck!

 

[Heather]

Thanks Kyle,
Were they in the media also?

 

[Kyle]

I never saw them in there, but I read it somewhere on the web that part of their lifecycle occurs in the media

Kyle

 

[Heather]

Yeah, me too.
I am thinking seriously about repotting everything in the not too distant future (since my root growth is excellent) but will spray first.

The other issue I have going on with my besseaes right now is that all the new OZ crosses are very stoloniferous and I need to pot them all deeper than I originally thought. So that's two good reasons.

 

[bwester]

"stoloniferous"
Thats a mighty big word there, Heather

 

[likespaphs]

their larvae pupate in the media or soil, depending on in what you're growing

 

[Heather]

their larvae pupate in the media or soil, depending on in what you're growing

Yippee!

 

[SlipperFan]

I thought thrips damaged mostly flowers. But plants, also???

 

[likespaphs]

yeh, sometimes they go after the leaves, though they prefer flowers.

 

[Heather]

yeh, sometimes they go after the leaves, though they prefer flowers.

Luckily (maybe?) I don't have much in spike right now. Only two plants, and I seem to be finding them more in the crown of those as well, and not (that I can see anyway) near the buds. We'll see when they bloom I suppose. Actually they are mostly leaving those two plants alone, I've only found a couple yellow ones on them. It is the 14 besseaes they really are finding tasty. And none of those are in spike. Both the yellow and grey ones. This morning, I went to smush one on a relatively new leaf and the whole leaf came off!

 

[bwester]

Luckily (maybe?) I don't have much in spike right now. Only two plants, and I seem to be finding them more in the crown of those as well, and not (that I can see anyway) near the buds. We'll see when they bloom I suppose. Actually they are mostly leaving those two plants alone, I've only found a couple yellow ones on them. It is the 14 besseaes they really are finding tasty. And none of those are in spike. Both the yellow and grey ones. This morning, I went to smush one on a relatively new leaf and the whole leaf came off!

Dont feel too bad Heather, mine are taking quite a beating too. I have some aweful looking plants right now due to those buggers.

 

[Heather]

So what about this idea of garlic plants as a deterrant?
Any thoughts on that?

I just noticed a sprouting head in my cupboard so I put a few cloves around the trays. My question is - if the thrips don't like garlic, where will they go??


Perhaps this is not such a good idea?

 

[bwester]

Right now I have said "screw it" to this earth friendly crap and have gone back to my good friend malathion.