Thrips

Sumby

Active Member
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 ???
 

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Sumby

Active Member
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
 

Moflow

Well-Known Member
  • Royal Horticultural Society info

  • Organic sprays, such as natural pyrethrum (e.g. Bug Clear Gun for Fruit & Veg, Defenders Bug Killer, Ecofective Bug Killer (also contains fatty acids)), fatty acids (e.g. Solabiol Bug Free, Doff Greenfly & Blackfly Killer) or plant oils (e.g. Vitax Organic Pest & Disease Control, Origins Bug Control) can give good control of thrips. These pesticides have a very short persistence and so may require reapplication to keep thrips numbers in check.
 

Moflow

Well-Known Member
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!
 

bezalom

Well-Known Member
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!
 

Jimmy the vest uk

Well-Known Member
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
 

Sumby

Active Member
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!
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.
 
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