How To Control Thrips Within (24 Hrs) Naturally [Without Toxic Sprays]

Thrips are the kind of species that are sucking the plant’s life for ages all over the world. In this blog, you will finally get tons of natural (organic) ways to get rid of and Thrips Control without using toxic sprays.

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What Are Thrips?

Thrips are tiny insects that can be spotted on many plants throughout the world. Often people don’t notice them because they’re so small. They’re usually about 1/25th of an inch in length, making them next to impossible to see without a magnifier.

If you are wondering do thrips jump? Yes, they sure can fly and jump and are very good escape artists. They destroy the plants and leave them pale, jagged, and scarred. With over 6000 known species of thrips, they are found in the garden, greenhouses, and even household plants.

Thrips are commonly called storm bugs, corn fleas, thunder flies, corn flies, corn lice, freckle bugs, physiopod, thunder bugs, storm flies, thunder blights, harvest bugs, woodworm, and terebrantia.

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How To Identify Thrips Damage, Signs Of Infection?

If you find streaks, silvery speckling, and small white patches on your plants, then the chances are you have been infested by thrips Cannabis bugs.

These damages occur because they suck plant cells from many garden plants (thrips on basil and thrips on ficus), flowers (thrips on roses and thrips on hibiscus), fruits (thrips on peaches).

And even shade trees. If there is a severe thrips infestation, flowers and fruits on your plants will get damaged as well.

Some clear Indicators of a thrip infestation are:

• Tiny black thrips specks on leaves and buds – Use a magnifying glass to confirm the presence of thrips as other insects leave black specs too.
• For an easier way, shake a branch or leaves over sheets of white paper. When the thrips fall on the paper, you can confirm them.
• Also, you can use sticky traps (blue or yellow) as thrips get easily attracted to these colors.

How Did I Get Thrips?

Thrips are commonly found on outdoor plants. They are particularly drawn to plants that are flowering and will have plenty of sap to munch on.

But it is indeed possible to find thrips in house, maybe because they hopped on to you, your pets or while you were bringing in your laundry.

Thrips on houseplants are as much a possibility as aphids which are also infesting your indoor plants in the same way. Even if few enter the house, they can rapidly breed and spread. Aphids and thrips are major problems for some households.

You will often notice them crawling on top of the soil around plants indoors as well as outdoors.  If thrips get inside your home, they’ll eat your houseplants as a source of food and might also feed on vegetables and fruits you have kept in the open. Find the best thrips control insecticide for the vegetable garden.

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What Do Thrips Look Like?

What are thrips and can you see them? Well, thrips vary in size and are normally snake-like, slender bugs with small feathery wings. A grown adult thrip measures less than 1/25-inch so they are very hard to see without a proper lens. However, some species may not have wings.

Are you curious to know what do thrips look like? If you observe their body closely with a magnifying glass, they look a bit like lobsters. They look like more of tiny dark slivers on your household vegetation.

• They are really quick and can swiftly hop to another planet in the blink of an eye. However, if you happen to see one, it might just look like a small black fly. You can also keep them on a white sheet to see them well.
• Try browsing through thrips images, you will find that their colors are generally yellow or brown, or black. There are orange thrips too, small with fringed wings, which are adult thrips infesting mostly citrus plants. The thrips nymphs are even smaller adults.
• Thrips have a light green or yellow color. Their wings won’t be fully developed and sometimes could have red eyes. Young thrips don’t have wings and get darker in color as they reach maturity. Thrips have distinctive asymmetrical mouthparts and what is interesting is that one mandible is shorter than the other one.

Do Thrips Can Bite?

Yes, they can bite now thinking “How Serious Are Thrips?” Thrip bites are not that serious, it just causing minor irritation and do not usually have long-term effects. Find here non-toxic pest control products.

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What Are The Types Of Thrips

In general, people are not aware of the thrips and their types. They are mainly concerned with killing bugs and termites, which pose a visible threat to the plants and vegetation.

Below are the most common types of Thrips bugs are-

1. Banana rust thrips,
2. Banana rind thrips,
3. Banded greenhouse thrips,
4. and Hawaiian flower thrips.

However, thrips are a major cause of concern as they enter crops and yields and eat the whole thing. That also affects and doesn’t let the other portion grow, even if not touched by it. Therefore thrips control and even less toxic thrips pesticides are a must at the earliest possible stage.

There are also some thrips species which help in protecting the crops, we will learn about them too. Here are some of the common distinctions made on the types of thrips found around the world:

• Most commonly seen plant-feeding thrips are thrips in flowers. These are yellow, orange, or amber and typically grow in population during spring.
• Red-banded thrips (Scientific name- Selenothrips rubrocinctus) are found in tropical zones of the world.
• Six-spotted thrips or Scolothrips sexmaculatus measure less than 3 mm in length and have six spots upon their wings. However, unlike other harmful thrips, they reduce populations of other thrips by eating them and thus are favored by farmers for crop protection.
• From more than 6,000 species of thrips, many are seen infesting on banana fruits.
• The orange thrips thrive on South African citrus fruit trees; they are also almost invisible and are approximately 1 mm in size. Mostly active during hot and dry seasons, they prefer to eat young leaves and raw fruits.

How To Control and Kill Thrips?

If you are thinking of immediately getting rid of thrips and ways on Thrips Control, kill them as the infestation has become moderate to severe, then you will have to take stringent measures:

• Thrips Spray: If an infestation is out of control and you are worried about how to get rid of thrips now, then you must spray your plants with a thrips pesticide or an insecticide for thrips. Pyrethrin spray and many other types of oil-based thrip spray are commercially available in less toxic varieties as well.
• There are also some types of spray available that mix insecticide with dormant oils to poison thrips. This kind of thrip spray is more commonly used when they become a serious threat to crops and plants. For the infestation of thrips on pepper plants, you can add a few drops of neem oil in the insecticide mix to make it the best spray for thrips.
• Diatomaceous earth as last resort: Now that you know what is a thrip and how seriously harmful it can be, as the last measure you can use diatomaceous earth as it dehydrates thrips and kills them over time.
• Buy it from your nearest pesticide store. You can use it around the perimeter in the form of a circle near the plant stem as it is safe in limited quantities.
• This will dehydrate the exoskeleton of any kind of thrips including root thrips that come in contact with the diatomaceous earth to eat the plant. Remember to wear gloves when handling it and it is advised to wear a protective mask and clothing.

Reproduction & Life Cycle Of Thrips

Several factors determine the thrips life cycle like their species, location, host plant, etc. Adult thrips usually spend winter hiding in plant debris and bark.

• They become active in early spring and these leaf-infesting and western flower thrips lay their eggs (each female can produce up to 80 eggs) into plants through an egg-laying apparatus known as an ovipositor.
• These white thrips or thrips eggs can be seen in white halo-like spots on leaves and fruits. These thrip eggs hatch after 3–5 days and once they emerge from their cocoons, these thrips nymphs feed on the plants on which they were initially laid.
• The thrips nymphs feed for about 1–3 weeks before resting to molt in 1–2 weeks. In the young stage, they do look like adult thrips, but they still do not have wings yet and move through plants crawling till their wings are fully developed.
• Unlike most other insects, Thrips have unique metamorphosis. They come out of eggs and pass through two wingless stages. Later they enter a non-feeding stage ( prepupa) before transforming into adults(pupae). Thrips normally develop fully within around 20 days.

It has been observed that Thrips have about 15 generations per year with a complete life cycle. These adult thrips live usually not more than one month. You can also find thrips insecticide for roses for your home plant.

How To Get Rid Of Thrips Naturally- Organic Pest Control Tips

It is always better to prevent an infestation at the earliest stage than to control thrips through other measures. There sure are ways which can help you get rid of thrips before they damage your plants:

#1 Keep It Clean:

• Try to reduce the places where thrips may breed and spread an infestation. We recommend regular pruning and removal of weeds from the planting area as it attracts more thrips and makes it harder to spot them.
• Once you are done cleaning, don’t let the removed weeds lying around in the vicinity as it is known that thrips lay their eggs in any type of green foliage and plant leaves.

#2 Be Vigilant:

• Do constant checks of your plants to look for any signs of damage by the pests especially on the leaves close to the stem base.
• If you see do see such signs, immediately take measures of thrip control to stop the breeding and spread.

#3 Inspect Thoroughly:

• Whenever you buy new plants, check for signs of thrip damage. Signs of Thrips infestation can be observed if you spot the silver streaks and small white patches on the leaves.
• If you see any signs of infestation, do not let them anywhere near your garden, put them carefully in trash bags, and avoid storing them near the compost earth as well.

A thrips infestation can be prevented and controlled naturally by following the precautions described above.

However, if you find do find clusters of thrip bugs on your plants and are thinking of how to get rid of thrips naturally, you can use these alternate measures for organic thrips control:

#4 Water- The easiest way

The simplest measure to get rid of thrips is to use water to blast them off and also hydrate the plant especially if you have outdoor plants. Plants that are kept usually dry are more susceptible to thrips, so keep them moist and increase humidity.

#5 Use a Natural Insecticidal Soap

If you are thinking about how to get rid of thrips inside the house, use insecticidal soap that is non-toxic as they have proven to be an effective thrip killer. With a spray bottle, you can get rid of thrips in your home.

Keep spraying on alternate days for about a month until the thrips are gone for good. It is very effective for thrips houseplants problem, just use it carefully.

#6 Neem Oil Treatment

If the thought of how to get rid of thrips on roses is bothering you, then Neem oil can be very useful in controlling these rose thrips. Neem kills thrips upon contact and can be conveniently bought from the market. You just need a few drops to mix it in water.

Fill up a spray bottle and you are ready to use your thrips control spray. It also works well on thrips on hibiscus, thrips on basil, thrips on monstera plants, and even thrips on fruit trees.

#7 Use Sticky Traps As Thrips Treatment

To keep thrips populations under control, you can try to use yellow or blue sticky traps near the plants as thrips get easily attracted to these colours. The sticky traps that have organic ingredients can be purchased as well.

#8 Make Use Of Thrip Predators

What eats thrips? Well, some natural predators do munch on thrips and they will clean up your infestation.

These are insects like thrips eating mites, pirate bugs, lacewings, and ladybugs (do ladybugs eat thrips? Oh yes! Ladybugs eat thrips and are the cheapest and best thrips killer).

FAQs

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed everything on thrips control. I hope all these tips will help you. Do let us know and comment.

Olivia

My name is Olivia, staying in the United States, and I love to have plants in my garden. Lots of plants are there in my balcony, indoor and outdoor garden also. Here I am trying to share useful tips on gardening, how to grow and care for various plants, etc. Check out more.