Bad Thrips

Can some experienced growers give me some advise?

I noticed some thrip damage the at least a week ago. I ordered some beneficials, unfortunately I didn't get rove beetles or minute pirate bugs, but I will be getting them today. They won't be here for at least a week. I sprayed last night with Nuke 'em, but there are still living bugs today.

I have a host of other beneficials: hypoapsis mites, Ablysius swirski and cucumeris, I think (will confirm later), and a few others, but I think they're focused on thrips in soil. Though, at least two of the beneficials are in slow release sachets that are hung in the canopy; this implies that the beneficials can at least tolerate and reproduce after introduced into the canopy.

So, the bad news. For the first time ever, I can see the thrips moving around. There is obvious damage on the leaves.

two questions:

1) I'm a week into flower. Even if I could get the thrip infestation under control in the next week or so, would the damage to the leaves have been too severe? I was thinking of doing a complete leaf strip at 3 weeks. I've never actually stripped them nearly bare, but I've seen some people like GML and a few others do it.

2) Assuming I did get the infestation under control and did a significant leaf strip, are flower and concentrates from situations like this still viable? I don't want to ingest contaminated product. But I'd hate to get rid of this. I vegged 4 plants forever to deeply fill a 4x4.

Should I chop it down and start over? Can I safely continue the grow? Should I take clones and restart? Is there any natural, biological way to get rid of slime or waste on the leaves? Any beneficials that can help process the waste?

Thank you all.

ACitizenofColorado said:

Can some experienced growers give me some advise?

I noticed some thrip damage the at least a week ago. I ordered some beneficials, unfortunately I didn't get rove beetles or minute pirate bugs, but I will be getting them today. They won't be here for at least a week. I sprayed last night with Nuke 'em, but there are still living bugs today.

I have a host of other beneficials: hypoapsis mites, Ablysius swirski and cucumeris, I think (will confirm later), and a few others, but I think they're focused on thrips in soil. Though, at least two of the beneficials are in slow release sachets that are hung in the canopy; this implies that the beneficials can at least tolerate and reproduce after introduced into the canopy.

So, the bad news. For the first time ever, I can see the thrips moving around. There is obvious damage on the leaves.

two questions:

1) I'm a week into flower. Even if I could get the thrip infestation under control in the next week or so, would the damage to the leaves have been too severe? I was thinking of doing a complete leaf strip at 3 weeks. I've never actually stripped them nearly bare, but I've seen some people like GML and a few others do it.

2) Assuming I did get the infestation under control and did a significant leaf strip, are flower and concentrates from situations like this still viable? I don't want to ingest contaminated product. But I'd hate to get rid of this. I vegged 4 plants forever to deeply fill a 4x4.

Should I chop it down and start over? Can I safely continue the grow? Should I take clones and restart? Is there any natural, biological way to get rid of slime or waste on the leaves? Any beneficials that can help process the waste?

Thank you all.

Click to expand...

Monterey Spinosad 15cc/gal with 1-2 drops of dishwashing liquid as a surfactant. I use mine as a root drench. You can also spray it.

Agree Spinosad. I know the magnitude of your concern about your environment, so I’m willing To bet they’re not even close to bad. One treatment with captain jacks and they’ll be gone. Spray the surface and the underside of the leaves. You’re only a week in, your flowers haven’t even started forming yet, so your plants will be fine. No need to worry about impurities.

ShLUbY said:

Agree Spinosad. I know the magnitude of your concern about your environment, so I’m willing To bet they’re not even close to bad. One treatment with captain jacks and they’ll be gone. Spray the surface and the underside of the leaves. You’re only a week in, your flowers haven’t even started forming yet, so your plants will be fine. No need to worry about impurities.

Click to expand...

I wouldn’t do 1 treatment, 2 or 3
Keep going after to think you won.

BigHornBuds said:

I wouldn’t do 1 treatment, 2 or 3
Keep going after to think you won.

Click to expand...

Exactly, it's the eggs that will get you.

Thank you, everyone.

I've seen that spinosad isn't on approved pesticide lists. Beauvaria Bassiana is just a fungus, right?

Does anyone know why spinosad would trip contaminate tests?

I've read countless post from people I've come to trust after seeing their work and reading their content that all use spinosad.

Kevin Jodrey talked about this situation out in California, stating that regulators erroneously considered safe products to be pesticides.

I'd love to get some pure for of beauvaria bassiana, but versions like mycotrol wpo are almost $100.

Build-a-soil has a mix:
https://buildasoil.com/products/buildasoil-beauveria-bassiana-plus?variant=793599409

But I don't think its omri, and don't know about spraying all four of the ingredients, specifically the graphite/talc.

Thoughts?

@ShLUbY, @BigHornBuds, @curious2garden Thank you guys for the input. I'm taking time to think through all the options.

ACitizenofColorado said:

Thank you, everyone.

I've seen that spinosad isn't on approved pesticide lists. Beauvaria Bassiana is just a fungus, right?

Does anyone know why spinosad would trip contaminate tests?

I've read countless post from people I've come to trust after seeing their work and reading their content that all use spinosad.

Kevin Jodrey talked about this situation out in California, stating that regulators erroneously considered safe products to be pesticides.

I'd love to get some pure for of beauvaria bassiana, but versions like mycotrol wpo are almost $100.

Build-a-soil has a mix:
https://buildasoil.com/products/buildasoil-beauveria-bassiana-plus?variant=793599409

But I don't think its omri, and don't know about spraying all four of the ingredients, specifically the graphite/talc.

Thoughts?

@ShLUbY, @BigHornBuds, @curious2garden Thank you guys for the input. I'm taking time to think through all the options.

Click to expand...

Monterey Spinosad is OMRI. In CA it's allowed at .1 microgram/g. I only use it as a root drench so I never have to worry about contamination.

ACitizenofColorado said:

Thank you, everyone.

I've seen that spinosad isn't on approved pesticide lists. Beauvaria Bassiana is just a fungus, right?

Does anyone know why spinosad would trip contaminate tests?

I've read countless post from people I've come to trust after seeing their work and reading their content that all use spinosad.

Kevin Jodrey talked about this situation out in California, stating that regulators erroneously considered safe products to be pesticides.

I'd love to get some pure for of beauvaria bassiana, but versions like mycotrol wpo are almost $100.

Build-a-soil has a mix:
https://buildasoil.com/products/buildasoil-beauveria-bassiana-plus?variant=793599409

But I don't think its omri, and don't know about spraying all four of the ingredients, specifically the graphite/talc.

Thoughts?

@ShLUbY, @BigHornBuds, @curious2garden Thank you guys for the input. I'm taking time to think through all the options.

Click to expand...

I’ve never used what you mentioned.
Because your only @ 1 week I would spray them with spanosad , n rinse if your worried.

If you want to go natural, you can buy bugs to hunt the thrips , but buy 10x what they say you need , and combine them with nematodes, n keep adding new ones every week. It gets costly .
But spanosad is thrips kryptonite.

Can’t even buy it in Canada it works so good .

ACitizenofColorado said:

Can some experienced growers give me some advise?

I noticed some thrip damage the at least a week ago. I ordered some beneficials, unfortunately I didn't get rove beetles or minute pirate bugs, but I will be getting them today. They won't be here for at least a week. I sprayed last night with Nuke 'em, but there are still living bugs today.

I have a host of other beneficials: hypoapsis mites, Ablysius swirski and cucumeris, I think (will confirm later), and a few others, but I think they're focused on thrips in soil. Though, at least two of the beneficials are in slow release sachets that are hung in the canopy; this implies that the beneficials can at least tolerate and reproduce after introduced into the canopy.

So, the bad news. For the first time ever, I can see the thrips moving around. There is obvious damage on the leaves.

two questions:

1) I'm a week into flower. Even if I could get the thrip infestation under control in the next week or so, would the damage to the leaves have been too severe? I was thinking of doing a complete leaf strip at 3 weeks. I've never actually stripped them nearly bare, but I've seen some people like GML and a few others do it.

2) Assuming I did get the infestation under control and did a significant leaf strip, are flower and concentrates from situations like this still viable? I don't want to ingest contaminated product. But I'd hate to get rid of this. I vegged 4 plants forever to deeply fill a 4x4.

Should I chop it down and start over? Can I safely continue the grow? Should I take clones and restart? Is there any natural, biological way to get rid of slime or waste on the leaves? Any beneficials that can help process the waste?

Thank you all.

Click to expand...

I just went through a bad thrips problem and found good solutions for beneficial. A cucumeris will not be able to control an outbreak but can help as a preventativ if you notice only a couple scratches leaves or for after an outbreak.

Orius Insidious annihilated the thrips they are an amazing nuclear option, way better than swarskiis I found and cucumeris, the hypoapsis mites I use for fungas gnats and didnt think they would do alot on thrips.

Bacillus thuringiensis...otherwise known as BT

They're like caterpillars


See if that's on your approved list (lol)