Does this look like Thrip damage?

My auto ak-47s are 15 days old. Noticed two leaves on one plant, and one leaf on another have holes in them. The plant with only one leaf affected also has slightly deformed new growth coming from the centre. Im pretty sure that thrips must be the only possible cause, but some confirmation (or not) would be great.



The pic should display, ive uploaded it to imageshack (as i couldnt be bothered to work out how to upload onto here). If it doesnt let me know and il try and sort it.

Thanks in advance

No. Thrips wont eat through leaves like that. This is thrip damage: http://breedbay.co.uk/gallery/data/500/3510.jpg

got some small earwig like bugs w/o pincers that jump any ideas on waht they could be, looks like they like to hide in the soil n under pots

homebrewer said:

No. Thrips wont eat through leaves like that. This is thrip damage: http://breedbay.co.uk/gallery/data/500/3510.jpg

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Any ideas on what it might be then? I was thinking maybe caterpillars, but I havnt seen any.

Are there other insects - about the same size as thrips - that cause damage like that ive shown?

Bigby said:

Any ideas on what it might be then? I was thinking maybe caterpillars, but I havnt seen any.

Are there other insects - about the same size as thrips - that cause damage like that ive shown?

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Other bugs can certainly eat through leaves like that, but unless you see more damage elsewhere on your plant, I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe you sprayed your plant and the water droplets magnified the light killing the small section of leaf underneath?

You have a young plant and it should be easy to inspect for bugs. Check them out and if you don't see any bugs, you're fine. Good job so far, those look nice.

i would like to add that thrips do eat through your leaves and leave windows like this.
it is when they hatch from the egg they eat their way out of your leaves and drop to your medium to start feasting on your roots.

i had a thrips infestation on my 1st grow and found holes like these.

J

if thats all that plant has i would worry about it. she still pretty healthy.

jondamon said:

i would like to add that thrips do eat through your leaves and leave windows like this.
it is when they hatch from the egg they eat their way out of your leaves and drop to your medium to start feasting on your roots.

i had a thrips infestation on my 1st grow and found holes like these.

J

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I think you're getting your bugs mixed up.

This is coming from Experience. Seriously i had a thrips problem from bad compost that i used as a noob. I contaminated my grow room and didnt clean well enough before starting again.

the only single 1 pest that i had in my grow room was thrips. I had bought hypoaspis miles to combat their larval stage in the medium which can also be used on Fungus Gnats. this helped to ease the at the time increasing numbers of these pests.
And as such because i know that i only had a single pest problem i can confirm from experience that these things eat their way out of your leaves to get to your medium. the Scratching on the leaf surface is the feeding of the adult thrip (winged or wingless) and they reproduce rapidly.

I will try and find some evidence of this on google to either prove or disprove what i have experienced. The info that i find i will post links to. Regardless of whether i am right or wrong. It just this kind of thing has actually happened to me.


regards


J

Thanks for the info mate, i really do appreciate it. Always like to have someone speaking from personal experience.

Did you actually see any of the thrips? Coz I aint seen anything really yet, just some whispy things appearing to jump away now and again when I shake the leaves. How would I go about treating my growing medium in as non toxic a way as possible?

hi Bigby.

the most successful way of getting rid of these is by using SPINOSAD.
u have to order it from USA . www.ebay.com
you mix it as a spray and spray your plants and the top of your medium. this is a bacteria that if it gets on them kills them and if ingested by them kills them quicker.
if you do order some get some HOT SHOTS NO PEST STRIPS too. these release a vapour that kill any flying or crawling insects (also kills beneficials) 1 strip covers 1200cu ft for 4months.

to find them you can either breath on the top of your medium or water and watch the medium look for little white jumpy things that come up from within your medium .

hope this helped


J

When you do have thrips, this is another product that works great with the same active ingredient.

http://www.amazon.com/Spinosad-Garden-Insect-Spray-Monterey/dp/B002BP12LI

Thank you very much for the replies guys, really appreciate it. Now I just need to decide if I can afford that spinosad.

Hi bro .. Im battleing those lil f@#$ers now..... Yes that is without a question thrip damage... Ive seen it many time. My yard has alot of bark and they are all over.... I have three lil ones off on there own on a sterile table , that are in smaller pots of foxfarm (building roots) and they keep comeing back..Ill sit out there and watch for hours waiting to see one and then squish it.... On the same leaf as the wholes You sometime see the tiny white larva that will mature into those thin brown bugs from hell ... I noticed tthese ones about a week ago and I spray with neem and garlic mix.. Again neem work by ingestion and takes time to get rid of pest. but doesnt kill eggs ..so repeating is needed... Garlic repels them so ive read off the US department of ag links... So far im still seeing a few thrips here and there but the population is dropping .... Youlll also see a sheen thats resembles snail poop ... and lil black spots will appear aswell ... Im not book smart but I have battled these pests before and I won !