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Thrips 101: Introduction to Western Flower Thrips

Green Elk

New member
Has anyone else tried Capt Jacks with diatomaceous earth? I don't mean any other product with spinosad because there are other ingredients in the deadbug brew product besides spinosad. Other's have said it worked for them as well. I've used it for thrips and it kills anything on the surface and diatomaceous earth gets them in the soil and also as they are trying to crawl up the base of the stem. The two together seem to work really well.
 
I believe I have thrips but I only see them in the soil. I do have damage to a few leaves. Little white bumps that look like pimples under a 30x loupe. I also have fungus gnats. I'm having unexplained nute def. Can spinosad be used as a root drench?
I will be starting mosquito dunks and nematodes today.
 
Used DE on the base helped slow them down but the Azatrol kicked their butts. I did entire plant dip to get rid of them completely. The thrips I battled also where resistant to spinosad after they hatched again. But not to azatrol. It is a sestemic and stays in the plant 30 days so don't use past 3rd week of flower. It also had an impact on the plants at 2oz per gallon losing many leaves but it could also have been damage from the thrips.
Just a heads up to anyone who sees signs of them start treating right away before their populations explode. Have not seen any in almost 2 months.
Hope that helps
 
I'm around 5-6 weeks of flowering(12/12) and just noticed that I had thrips a week or two ago...now since, I've been doing foliar spray application of AACT(actively aerated compost tea), Coco-Wet as surfactant, and a low-sided dose of neem oil...QUESTION is, will this combo help eliminate thrips?

I'm going on the hope that the high beneficial bacteria/fungus will help kill off pests, such as, thrips, as well as the neem aiding this process...all the while, keeping bad bacteria/fungus like mold, budrot, PM, etc. at bay...is this logical and at all possible method for treating these lil bastards?
 

BlackBuds

Member
I believe these are coming into my garden via the cocoa I am purchasing. I would like to treat the substrate with a preventative wash. What would the best product be to do this?
 

vince514

seeker of greater knowledge
Veteran
neem and endall2 combo works great in controlling their numbers plus those little sticky sticks really kicks their ass!
 

Gubar1

Member
I found some vegetable gardening forums that say Spinosad is systemic and can be injected into plants using a syringe. It will stay in the plant for up to 30 days. Some studies have shown that tomatoes will uptake it through the root system when added to the rock wool they grew in.

I just started a battle with thrips. They all seem to be in the larvae stage still. I hit them with a powder mildew spray during lights on. It just a bunch of different oils and some garlic. I figured it suffocate them until lights went off and I could spray with Spinosad. So later that night when lights were off I drenched them top to bottom, including the top layer of soil, with Moneterey Insect Spray (spinosad). Its been almost three days I haven't found one under my microscope yet but Im still suspicious. Ill be hitting them again tonight with spinosad.I threw some mosqituito dunks in the soil as well.

They plants sure don't look to happy today but they seem to be growing. I think it was the mildew spray? Its mostly the top leaves. Something about that spray and the light together is hard on young plants. I used the Safer brand Mildew Spray. It sure did suffocate those assholes though. I sprayed a leaf that had three on it and watched them all die in minutes under a microscope.
 

maryjaneismyfre

Well-known member
Veteran
I find once a week spinosad is more than enough when there is a thrips outbreak. I have it in the wild and have had problems in the past, a preventative garlic oil and spinosad spray fortnightly during veg as well as bacillus added in a fortnightly AAC brew sprayed foliar feed during veg. eliminated/avoids the issue. Gubar has the fix. :) Just the garlic and spinosad will work and it IS systemic given in watering, I have taken note of the time of protection cover as you can see by the small hatched caterpillars and thrips larvae not being affected after week 3 to 4 of the spinosad watering but dying after first bite before, so water with a light spinosad once at start of flower and if need be a week or 2 at MAX after again (If short flower strain do not give after first week flower and long flower you can give again after 2 weeks into flower). Do not spray during flower unless you want mold. I go at the concentration given on the bottle for lawns, 5ml/ 10L whereby bottle is at a spinosad 120g/l stock concentration. Spinosad is broken down by light in the tissues of the plant so it works well systemically without being persistent IME. I have not studied it just keenly observed my plants.

Hope this helps. Thrips is a bugger until you ID it, then you learn to see that F-up growth pattern and look under the leaf or in the growth tip and sure as hell the little bugger larvae is there. Hit it with spinosad and garlic preventative and you'll be ok. Bacillus and compost tea also helps and no need for big chems whatsoever. I grow for my own smoke and am very careful about what I use for pests.
 

Gubar1

Member
My plants looked wonderful but were growing slow for about 2 weeks or so maybe longer. I was super confused because they looked awesome but were very touchy and had that weird growth on the tips. I was spraying the garlic oil as a PM preventative about every other week. I guess it was keeping the thrips under control but they were still feasting on my plants. After the first attack against the thrips my plants are growing super fast. Exploding even. They had to get a little bit higher in numbers before I noticed the tell tell signs of thrips. Low temps and higher humidity are always good when trying to rid a grow of them although I would do this in veg.

Identification is a huge part in pest control. You gotta have some sort of microscope to really look at the bastards and see not only what they are, but what stage of life they are in.
 

maryjaneismyfre

Well-known member
Veteran
Dumbask, it looks like it can be thrips..The larvae is the bugger that you will find in those growth tips. Hit it with garlic oil/spinosad combo and it'll nail whatever you have.. Unless it is those cyclamen/broad mite mofos but thats another story and I think you are fine..If it does not work, get the pests ID'd asap.
 

Gubar1

Member
Hi! Can somebody check pics of possible thrips damage? Posted here:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=6186052&postcount=12

Thanks!

Found possible egg, oval shaped, yellowish, very small. Also saw something that resembled more like a maggot, very small, yellow brownish?

That looks nothing like thrip damage to me. Thrips leave brown spots all over the leaves from where they have suck the juices. They leave black apps all over the leaves as well as a clear "honeydew" substance. Not sure what that is but they do resemble my plants that have been light stressed. Are the lights close? This even happens to my young outdoors that I put in direct sunlight to soon.
 

Gubar1

Member
^^apps=spots

the first post of this thread has pics that show perfect examples of what thrip damage looks like. here is a pic of there life cycle.
 
N

noyd666

have not seen this product before, might be handy. top dressing.
picture.php
 

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