Thrips. What is your control method?

Please tell us all your method of dealing with Thrip.

I'm trying natural predators.
Thrip damage on the leaves.



Time for Action

I had some blue sticky traps lying around so I hung 7 of them up about 4" - 100mm above the canopy.
I checked them regularly and trapped 3 or 4 of the adults.

Then I got on to a internet to Dragonfli, a UK company that supplies biological pest control
They have a few different predators .for Thrip.

I ordered Ambyseilius Cucumeris predators, 10,000 of them for an instant attack.
Dragonfli say for a heavy infestation 500 mites per plant, I've 6 plants. ~ 3000. So plenty of them.
You can't see the wee feckers so I couldn't count them lol. I sprinkled them all over the canopy.
Also
10 sachets of Ambyseilius Cucumeris were also applied. They are slow release that last 3 - 4 weeks.
I also bought a Thrip pheromone disk. You attach it to a sticky trap and it draws the thrip to the smell and they get stuck to the traps.
These only eat the larvae and eggs but they'll hopefully break their cycle.

I chose these predators as they can handle cooler temperatures and I grow in cooler conditions than most.

6 days later and plants leaves are looking better.
The predators were in a bran carrier in a tube so you might see a bit on top of leaves.


Here is the Thrip pheromone disc.
You can smell it.
Adult Thrip can be seen on the blue sticky traps

I might have to give a second dose in a few weeks...... time will tell

I just wiped them out alternating between PyGanic and Dr. Zymes.
Pyganic is used 1oz per gallon, dr. Zymes is used 4oz per gallon but they both work great!

Capt Jack's or another form of Spinosad

Innoculating growing medium with BotaniGard once is effective IPM for thrips and other things.
A. Cucumeris predators are not greatly affected for ongoing treatments in the grow.
It won't kill thrips all by itself, but combined with other IPM, should prevent any outbreaks.

You can make some longer lasting granules to reduce costs.

A sustainable fungal treatment was developed to preserve fungal inoculum in potting soil and reduce thrips populations. Combining cooked, oven-dried millet with BotaniGard® (a commercial form of Beauveria bassiana strain GHA) to potting soil increased spore production and persistence of the fungus in the soil. In treated pots with millet, spore concentrations were 3–4 times greater after 30 days compared with spore yields at 10 days. Incorporation of millet in the potting mix enhanced the effect of the fungal treatments by providing a nutritive substrate on which the fungus could become established.

Moflow said:

Please tell us all your method of dealing with Thrip.

I'm trying natural predators.
Thrip damage on the leaves.

View attachment 5334360View attachment 5334361

Time for Action

I had some blue sticky traps lying around so I hung 7 of them up about 4" - 100mm above the canopy.
I checked them regularly and trapped 3 or 4 of the adults.

Then I got on to a internet to Dragonfli, a UK company that supplies biological pest control
They have a few different predators .for Thrip.

I ordered Ambyseilius Cucumeris predators, 10,000 of them for an instant attack.
Dragonfli say for a heavy infestation 500 mites per plant, I've 6 plants. ~ 3000. So plenty of them.
You can't see the wee feckers so I couldn't count them lol. I sprinkled them all over the canopy.
Also
10 sachets of Ambyseilius Cucumeris were also applied. They are slow release that last 3 - 4 weeks.
I also bought a Thrip pheromone disk. You attach it to a sticky trap and it draws the thrip to the smell and they get stuck to the traps.
These only eat the larvae and eggs but they'll hopefully break their cycle.

I chose these predators as they can handle cooler temperatures and I grow in cooler conditions than most.

6 days later and plants leaves are looking better.
The predators were in a bran carrier in a tube so you might see a bit on top of leaves.
View attachment 5334370

Here is the Thrip pheromone disc.
You can smell it.
Adult Thrip can be seen on the blue sticky traps
View attachment 5334371
I might have to give a second dose in a few weeks...... time will tell

Thrip

What are Thrips? Thrips are the smallest winged insects, and there are about six species of which can cause damage to plants in greenhouses and at indoor growing. The most common species are Western Flower Thrips, which, as their name suggests, attack and hide in flowers. Thrip Damage & Symptoms...

www.dragonfli.co.uk

Click to expand...

Thrips love hot dry environments, humidity helps but dont get too crazy (over 80%.) keep those temps in check too. Use organic pesticides BEFORE the pests to prevent them from even happening. Ive used sevin on mine in veg and i think i had to spray it like twice ever.

Captain jacks every few days until gone

The predators seem to be working so far.
There are no visible signs of Thrip damage on the leaves now.
I'll keep monitoring the plants though.
At least the low temps and high humidity is a bonus against them.

I wiped them out with a combo of spinosad and high quality nematodes…

Moflow said:

The predators seem to be working so far.
There are no visible signs of Thrip damage on the leaves now.
I'll keep monitoring the plants though.
At least the low temps and high humidity is a bonus against them.

Click to expand...

I've had a similar issue myself fella.
Did the same thing as you from the same company. Actually I tried a competitor first but they refunded me due to poor stock .. only I didn't know that because the email went to my spam. So wasted two weeks.

Had a right nightmare this year with thrips.
An infestation would be putting it mildly.

Anyway, I do seem to be on top of it now but as a precaution I'm letting g my flower tent run dry and stripping it out and starting fresh and clean.
Pain in the arse when perpetual in the same tent but I feel like it wouldn't of got this bad if it weren't for the staggered flowering tent.

Obviously not going to spray anything in flower either. But as you know captain Jack's and other such stuff isn't available over here.

There is a guy on ebay sells concentrated spinosad. Though he got banned , he is still selling it outside ebay using PayPal.
(Edit, should say banned from selling it, not banned from ebay)

Don't want to be spraying that when your running predators though, but if you need hooking up just PM me.

I do think the predators will sort it out, I'm going to go for more of the sachets for now as they are slow release and inexpensive.

Thinking about breeding them myself too.