Western Flower Thrip Damage

[Happypaphy7]

I hate these little devils!!!

So this is the third time flowering, each time exactly the same.
I love the coloring on the dorsal although my photo does not really do justice.

Anyways, this flower is about one month old and I started seeing the pouch getting a bit wilted last week.
I thought it was rather strange considering this flower usually last for about two months or longer.
Today nearly entire front part of the pouch was looking tired and wilted.
I thought some sort of disease attacking the flower.
I had a really close look and there it was!
This little skinny little light brown thrip! I don't have a picture of it because I squeezed it to death the second I found it with my finger, which is why the pouch is all dented in this picture.

I am rather surprised how much such a little thing can eat in just a few days.

I wonder if there might be more hiding somewhere in the apartment.
I now do not even buy fresh cut flower after having a horrible episode of flower thrip out break back in 2012.
I wonder if they come in through the window when I leave it open. highly possible I guess.

 

[Brabantia]

I noticed than with a low fertilyser regime (25 ppm N per week)you increase the flower lifetime. A to warm or a dry ambience reduce also the flower lifetime.

 

[fibre]

Oh, I hate Western Flower Thrips! :viking:

Good luck for your fight!

 

[abax]

Thrips are sneaky devils and can multiply quickly. If you've seen a couple, there's probably more. I'd recommend a good orthene drench, but I seem to remember you grow in your home. A good spraying with
horticultural oil is certainly in order. Sun Spray is a good
brand that's usually easy to find.

 

[Happypaphy7]

I think there might be more since they can fly too. Dang little things.
Yes, I grow indoor, so orthene might be too stinky. lol

The thing with the thrips is that because they are highly mobile, spraying is not really helpful unless you spray on them while you see them.
I have heard of Sun Spray, recommended by others as well, but I don't think I have seen it here.

For now, I'm just going to have to kill manually as I find.

I used to have quite a few, but luckily they only liked yellow oncidiums and other brightly colored flowers, so it was rather easy to spot.
but then one day, one of my Miltoniopsis had so many of thrip larvae and heavily damaged. I threw away the plant as it was replaceable.
Then I saw them on my yellow cattleya flowers, blue dendrobium flowers...
I bought Safer's Flying Insect Killer. It is of natural origin and the ingredient degrades in the sun relatively quickly.
Anyways, this spray really helped and I had not seen any thrips for a couple of years, well, basically until now!

The thing is I cannot spray that thing again because I have fish (more than one) and taking them out is not an option. The product is very toxic to aquatic life it says and it recommends to remove any fish and birds in the area, and also humans should also leaves the area where the spray is being used for twenty minutes it says with doors and windows closed.
Oh, well...

 

[Happypaphy7]

Dang it, they are definitely here.
I see small damage spots on a few plants.
A couple seedlings of parvis, one neos...minor. but I do not see any bugs, just feeding damage. They must have eaten and left. lol

I did see an adult (well, two of them) hiding in the crevice at the center of the leaves on two other paph seedlings. Fortunately I was able to gently squeeze the plant leaves together and killed the bugs trapped inside.

Let's see how many more I find. hopefully not too many.

 

[chrismende]

Thrips are the only creature I big out the big guns for. Avid. Must be sprayed with protective gear (face mask, rain suit, etc). It's a thripicide. No other kind of pesticide works well. Thrips blow in and congregate inside developing flower buds, out of reach of most pesticides. When you have them, no pink or red flower will be spared. Take them seriously if your flowers are important.

 

[NYEric]

Too bad. Good luck.

 

[abax]

Yeah, Orthene is very smelly, but it is a drench and won't
contaminate your fish tank or you used as a drench. With
windows open the smell should only last a day or two. Thrips multiply fast as damnit and not to be taken lightly
as has been mentioned.

 

[littlefrog]

I had good luck with predatory mites...

Whatever you do, don't spray with Imidocloprid. That has absolutely no effect on thrips, and if I'm recalling a very old publication correctly, might actually enhance their reproduction. Not sure how, maybe by removing predators.

 

[Happypaphy7]

Well, I think last time I saw the label, it included mites as well. But I haven't used it.

Someone reported that mealy bug infestation also got worse after imidacloprid was sprayed. lol
I wonder how that works too! lol

 

[tomkalina]

Rob,

Have you found Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew to be effective against thrips? Just wondering because it's one of the target insects on the label.

 

[littlefrog]

Tank mix of Distance, spinosad (in the 'Deadbug Brew'), and azadirachtin was what finally did the trick, if I recall, but that was a long time ago. Might have posted something about it here if I was smart enough to know how to search for it. This was back when I did plants for frog tanks and couldn't use some of the bigger guns. You could probably substitute Enstar for the the Distance. Looking at the label for Distance it doesn't list thrips now... I am pretty sure it did at some point, it is why I bought it...

I haven't seen any thrips in a long time, but that might be because I don't grow many cattleyas any more and I don't live next to a hayfield. The thrips always seemed to move in in the summer right after the neighbor brought in his hay. May or may not have been a coincidence.

 

[abax]

Orthene granular 97% will get rid of them quickly and efficiently by drenching the potting medium throughly...no
broad spraying. For example, I had a commercial greenhouse full of white petunias for a wedding. As soon as the petunias started blooming, the thrips invaded in
enormous numbers. I drenched all the pots with 1 tsp.
per gallon orthene and the thrips were gone in a couple
of days. Happy, beautiful wedding...whew! As an aside,
in great numbers the damn little things can bite you. I
found that out the hard way!