Thrips

Hi guys. First timer here. I noticed the tell tale silvery looking leaves and after thinking it was a DEF at first I now know it’s thrips. I’m in the uk so can’t get hold of Spinosad. People say use soap and water but not sure what to use to be honest and iv seen photos of some people half killing their crop. I’m in soil and keeping it around 25.c with 55%rh. Iv been trawling the web for about 5 hours to prepare for today’s assault on them and just want a decent way of fighting them. I watched the guy on YouTube talking about using cinnamon and wondered if anybody had any luck with that. I have some flying/crawling bug spray killer which I was thinking about just spraying around the room briefly. My plants are in veg and I would wash down after half an hour or so just Incase. Has anybody tried that ? I have blue sticky paper coming tomorrow as they are attracted to blue, and going to use double sided sticky tape on the main stem to catch them on the way up but would the spray harm the plants ???

I wouldn't spray that directly on plants.
I use these to good effect
About a £ tenner

https://www.defenders.co.uk/pest-solutions/thrips-control.html

What size are your plants, what size area, how bad is the infestation....?
Any pics?

Plants are around 50cm. My room is 1.7x1.2x1.7 Very bushy. I’d say a light infestation at the moment. The odd leaf. I’ll post pics shortly

Leaf damage

Damage on my seedlings

Looks like you caught on to them early, which is good.
Maybe as a last resort, lift them out of room and give room a good squirt of that spray and leave door closed for half hour then vent room.
Hose the leaves with water in bath or shower if you can, might wash some off.
Look for an organic spray, they cost around £5 ish. They kill on contact but you gotta hit them a couple of times at least, then again for good luck!

My thrip have just been trimmed off and plants are hanging up drying lol

Yikes, feel for you...been there!

I used an organic neem oil that I cut in half allowing me to apply more sprayings close together. Hassle was to take em all to tub to spray and dry before putting back. Gotta reapply spray due to eggs hatching and avoid buds if possible but get good hand sprayer and spray under all the leaves. Pretty much any spray for vegetables that you can eat same or next day will work.


Good luck!

I often have these in veg compartment I don’t really care too much I just smoke bomb when I start seeing an increase in damage and that normally messes them up for a month or so.
In my experience they are one of the more gentle pests nothing like them spider mites they are a nightmare. Good luck

Never use " household " insecticides on plants that you or others will consume.

Moflow said:

Looks like you caught on to them early, which is good.
Maybe as a last resort, lift them out of room and give room a good squirt of that spray and leave door closed for half hour then vent room.
Hose the leaves with water in bath or shower if you can, might wash some off.
Look for an organic spray, they cost around £5 ish. They kill on contact but you gotta hit them a couple of times at least, then again for good luck!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info mate. Yea after doing many many many hours of reasearch and seing other peoples thrip problems, mine arnt infested but still....
I purchased some bug killer spray yesterday for for edibles (tomatoes etc). I’m sill in veg so I have tested it on one just to see how my plant does. I plan to cover soil to stop hatchlings from climbing and coat the leaves top and bottom. I have the blue sticky pads coming today. I’m going to lightly spray the floor too as I have seen a couple scurrying around.