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Thrips 101: Introduction to Western Flower Thrips

The Hatter

Member
Veteran
I am half way through flower and I've found the first signs of thrips, but no adults. I'm debating if its safe to spray for them at the moment or if I should just finish the flower and then sterilize the whole room afterwards.
 

maryjaneismyfre

Well-known member
Veteran
If anything spray with a light oil mixture and a couple drops dishwash soap as spreader. I'd avoid all poisons at that stage..
 
Looks like I have the thrips...just extremely thankful its not mites again.

I'm going to get some Spinosad to take care of them. Is it ok to spray during flower? I'm about 4 weeks in.
 

aridbud

automeister
ICMag Donor
Veteran
HATE those!!! Used spray of soaked cigarettes in water, sprayed solution several times. Could almost hear their gasping!! Also use chili powder and spray using a few drop of dish liquid to stick. A few days later hose down the plants.
 

vertigo0007

Member
It always amazes me to hear of people irradicating thrips w 1 sprayof spinosad. Ive had and know many whov had and never ever did spino work w1 spray. Spinosad alone took 10 or more sprays at 3 day intervals. Only one shot solution weve found is spinosad + kontos tank mixed.
 
A

Alone

Old thread...I know.....But I just sprayed Safer brand bug spray on the bottoms of all my plants that had thrip damage on them at week 4 exactly. Day 28.
The buds down on the bottoms were teeny-tiny and just had very small white hair clusters. Will this poison the start of the buds so whomever smokes them will smoke chemicals.... or will the buds be ok to smoke after they grow?
I didnt spray anywhere near the nice buds in the middles or tops.
 
K

K.O.Genetics

Old thread...I know.....But I just sprayed Safer brand bug spray on the bottoms of all my plants that had thrip damage on them at week 4 exactly. Day 28.
The buds down on the bottoms were teeny-tiny and just had very small white hair clusters. Will this poison the start of the buds so whomever smokes them will smoke chemicals.... or will the buds be ok to smoke after they grow?
I didnt spray anywhere near the nice buds in the middles or tops.


alone.. what I like to do is.. spray the branches no the bottom that u know u are going to cut off because they aren't growing like the colas.. spray them.. and as many leaves as u can.. then wait about 3-5 days.. and cut off the branches.. by then the thrips should have been pretty well taken care of.. it helps avoid fuckin up any colas.. and shit.. the thrips like to stay out of direct light.. so they eat up the leaves near the bottom of the plants.
 
diatomaceous earth is your saving grace when thrips (WFT) are attacking your plants. I had thrips hatching every 3 days and sprayed them with spinosad many times but they would not go away. After adding diatomaceous earth there numbers almost completely stopped. Had done soil drenches of spinosad with some success but they would come back after 5-7 days. Used bombs, spinosad, pure green spray and azatrol with limited success. diatomaceous earth was my saving grace. Works great against all soft bodied insects.
Hope that helps
 

trichrider

Kiss My Ring
Veteran
DE, mosquito dunks, and spinosad...as preventative measures (and spinosad offensively)...have relieved me of plenty of grief.

thanx
 
A

Alone

diatomaceous earth is your saving grace when thrips (WFT) are attacking your plants. I had thrips hatching every 3 days and sprayed them with spinosad many times but they would not go away. After adding diatomaceous earth there numbers almost completely stopped. Had done soil drenches of spinosad with some success but they would come back after 5-7 days. Used bombs, spinosad, pure green spray and azatrol with limited success. diatomaceous earth was my saving grace. Works great against all soft bodied insects.
Hope that helps

So I get the Diatomaceous Earth and just sprinkle it on the topsoil and around my buckets on the floor?
It wont absorb into the plant when I water/feed them and ruin the flavor of my flowers, will it ?
Ive grown for many years and have only gotten mites 1x and it was only 2 or 3 on 1 small clone.
I still bombed my veg room and sprayed them down and never had a bug issue yet.
Ive seen harmless white "pot walkers" I call them, but a mild Neem spray on the topsoil killed em off.
First time with thrips.
 

trichrider

Kiss My Ring
Veteran
no it won't affect flavor or potency. it is completely natural...the skeletons of diatoms accreted over millenia...
you can get bags of it at NAPA Auto Parts cheap. floor absorbant (for oil, petrol spills).
a good inch layer on top of your medium.
it's safe and effective and beneficial to your soil.
smile as you kill those little demons.
 

Green Elk

New member
I got to say out of all the options, the Captain Jack's bug brew does the best job. One spray are they are history. I spray both sides of the leaves and I take about 3 inches of top soil away and spray the soil then put the top layer back on and spray again. Spray your compost pile and empty pots as well. If you are thorough, it will work. Its great stuff and says its safe for organic gardening.
 
One mistake I made with thrips was just spraying and soil drench from the top. Was about to give up and finally gave them a hot water (115-125 degrees) dip in azatrol.

Did a total dunk in a 5 gallon bucket w 8oz of azatrol. First dipped the leaves for 1 minute then after the water became room temp dunked the planter in the liquid death to thrips.

The WFT is a nasty bugger and would recommend you try this if spinosad and DE doesn't work. Lets just say the resistant wft didn't know what hit them. It kicked them in the bean bag first and then sliced them into pieces across the DE and body slammed there asses into the dirt.

That was after 2 months of spraying/ soil drench with spinosad, bombing repeatedly and using DE for 2 weeks.
They would hatch like clockwork 2-3 days after treatment and repeat the cycle. This last approach was the final blow to these little demons from hell. Clear 2 weeks no signs of thrips. Finally they can recover after this battle for there lives.
Hope that helps.
 

hellawatson

New member
Ok peeps! I've had one hell of a battle with these F_CKERS, it's taken a long time to get to where I am now, which is I think I've beat them because I haven't seen one with my own eyes in a while, still old damage and possible new but keeping to my system I finally believe they are once and for all going bye bye. For starters I work primarily with moms so was limited in what I was willing to do to them, SPINOSAD didn't work for me, I believe the Thrips I've been dealing with are some new super thrip! Seriously bad-ass little buggers. What has worked!!! I've been using MOSQUITO BEETERS, which has the same exact active ingredients as Mosquito Dunks, but come as granuals in little bags that disolve into water. Fot first 2 weeks I used them every watering, now 2 months later I use them once maybe twice a week, and on weekends I use Nematodes. HERE'S THE TRICK!!! This methode at first didn't work, not until I added a decent quality water filter to filter out the chlorines from the municipal water, municipal water is engineered to kill funguses and what not thus killing the effect of the Mosquito Beeters/Dunks. It took a while so may not work for everyone but finally I found a solution that works for me!
 

hellawatson

New member
About water filter, I decided NOT to go with RO as I feel it's too wasteful, I went with Tall Boy filters with the special chlorine filter that costs a little more, supposedly takes care of like 95% which I felt would be good enough. So far so good!!!
 

OvergrowDaWorld

$$ ALONE $$
Veteran
Ive been battling thrips for the first time this gow.
Im about to harvest in 3 days. I used a Safers Soap brand spray on the leaves only, but the thrips took over. I have alot of the shiny patches on the fan leaves and on the suger trim leaves.
I refused to spray Spinosad on my flowers. I will use it in veg though, until 2 weeks after the flip.
My question is this......Will the thrip damage make my buds unsmokable after harvesting because of thrip droppings and thrip carcasses?
My second Q is this.....Do thrips turn a darker brown/red when dying from the spray on the leaves?
Thank You.
 
A

AlterEgo860

ive heard from a few people that its not unsmokeable.. just not as clean as medicine should be thats all... ive heard of people using spinosad 2 weeks before flower.. with no probs/./ but ur right.. they will be shitting and dieing all over ur nice buds
 

Leptosoma

sɔıʇǝuǝ⅁ ʞuoW
ICMag Donor
Veteran
so...once i've bring them on my
on my clothes from my mates room and horror began... i've been fighting with those little bastards too for last over two years and tried many pesticides, i always try to use organic pesticide and never spray since first flowers showing on plant. This is why i could only reduce the number of thrips in my grows, i always have some sections in 12/12 and they was always able to survive somewhere and when i stopped spraying for two weeks they was everywhere...
I find that only pyrethrin 5EC works well at mine as foliar solution, i use 3-5ml/L. Most plants are able to take 5ml/L but some of my cuts are very sensitive and 5ml/L burn there tips but 3ml/L works fine even on delicate ones, whole plant must be sprayed especially bottom side of the leafs because this is where they hiding.

Another very good thing i've started to use not so long ago is pyrethrin powder 0.11% ( AGROTHRIN ) which seems to be a perfect to combine with spray to get rid of thrips for good, i use it in all my grows/sections for last weeks and there is no thrips at all anywhere so far. I only use small amount of powder for each pot but dust whole top of pot edge to edge after watering when plants are hand watering, in my coco recirculating systems drippers are placed about 1" under lever of so top .5" of substrate will not get flushed very quick and this will make a toxic barrier for them, will kill larva in stage when they leaving substrate and will not allow mature ones to lay eggs. Powder is also very good because it can be used on flowering plants without risk of contaminating herb by pesticide, even if it's organic like pyrethrins.

I use those in coco and in soil also works well. I am very happy that guy in in hydro shop advised me to try this powder, it seems to be a end of thrips tyranny in my grows...

my 2 cents, i hope this will help !

peace

edit-Other good solution against thrisps is to cover top of pots by thick rubber foil , this makes a permanent barrier for any pests to lay eggs in substrate, this should work with rookwool and coco grows when using big pots and drippers, might be more difficult to cover small pots and hand watered plants, here powder should help;)
 
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