Thrips

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Thrips (Thysanoptera)

What Are Thrips?

Thrips are the most common insect-related concern for Kansas cotton growers. During the first several weeks after plants sprout, these tiny, hardly visible splinter-like insects are crucial. They can slow growth, but they’re also occasionally criticized for causing more harm than good. The majority of thrips issues in Kansas cotton appear to be caused by thrips migrating from wheat as it grows. Thrips are also known as Thysanoptera or thunder flies, are sucking insects that can harm plants. When they transfer viruses to plants, though, the consequences may be far severe.

Identifying of Thrips:

Adult thrips are small and thin, about 1 / 50 to 1 / 25 inches in length. Their hues range from yellow to brown to black, and if you approach them, they will most likely leap or fly away. Their wings are fringed and thin. The nymphs resemble even smaller adults, except they are lighter green or yellow in appearance rather than darker. Their wings are also not fully formed, and their eyes are occasionally crimson. Thrips emerge on your plants as tiny black slivers. Without a magnifying lens, it isn’t easy to discern their bodies clearly, but up close, they resemble lobsters. To view them clearly, shake them onto a white backdrop.

Life cycle of Thrips:

Thrips emerge from an egg and grow through two active larval stages, the prepupa and pupa, and two nonfeeding phases, the prepupa, and pupa, before reaching adulthood. Even though thrips do not have a genuine pupal stage, late-instar larvae change dramatically in appearance and behaviour and are referred to as prepupae and pupae. Most plant-feeding species’ females deposit their elongate, cylindrical to kidney-shaped eggs on or within leaves, buds, or other feeding areas. Most species’ pale prepupae and pupae fall to the ground or leaf litter or lodge in plant fissures or galls. Pupae (and eggs) of several gall-making species, such as Cuban laurel thrips and my forum thrips, are found on lower leaf surfaces but are encased within twisted plant tissue. Thrips have numerous generations every year (up to eight). When the temperature is warm, it is possible to complete the life cycle from egg to adult in as little as two weeks.

Damages:

Thrips eat in huge groups and are quite active. When disturbed, they jump or fly away. Onions, beans, carrots, squash, many other garden crops, and several flowers, including gladioli and roses, are host plants. Tomato spotted wilt virus and impatiens necrotic spot virus are disseminated by adults and wingless larvae attracted to white, yellow, and other light-colored blooms.

Control:

Thrips can be tough to eradicate. Use an integrated approach that incorporates sound cultural practices, natural enemies, and the most selective or least-toxic pesticides that are effective in the situation if management is required. To eliminate alternate hosts for thrips, eradicate weeds and grass from around plant areas. After harvesting, clean away crop trash in the garden, especially onion leaves. (Thrips will not be attracted to dry mulch.) Green mulch will do the trick.)

  1. Look for evidence of thrips or damage on any plants you bring into the garden. Remove any poisonous plants by securing them in a bag and tossing them in the garbage.
  2. Adult populations can be monitored using blue sticky traps.
  3. To minimize insect populations, use the Bug Blaster to wash down plants with a vigorous, all-encompassing blast of water.
  4. Shaking branches to remove thrips and capturing them on a cloth below is a simple approach to rapidly getting rid of thrips from your plants.
  5. If onion thrips are present, bang the onion tops against a dark piece of paper in the garden; their tan-colored bodies will appear on the report if thrips are present. They are killed with a couple of applications of insecticidal soap. Follow the instructions on the packaging. Spray the plants twice, three days apart, to get rid of the thrips.
  6. Spray dormant oil on fruit trees before they go dormant.
  7. Diatomaceous earth should be used as a last option to dust the undersides of leaves.