charred420
Well-Known Member
The fu** are these things??
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Squishing them is precisely what I've been doing. 10-12 so far.I've got rid of thrips and aphids by hunting them down and squishing them 3 different times. 20 min twice a day and got em all after a week. Thrips and mites on a large plant I brought in from outside so sprayed every 3 days x4 with warm water with a few drops of dish soap and the proper dose of neem oil. Flowered her out and never saw another bug.
Hate to have to deal with a room full of plants tho.
Good info here!Then you should be able to wipe them out without resorting to chemical warfare which is much better. A little diatomaceous earth around the stem of the plant will prevent any eggs that may have fallen into the soil from allowing the adults hatching out from crawling back up into the canopy. If you don't have it just check the main stem when you're out hunting for the little varmints.
I had at least a couple hundred thrips and managed to get them all so it shouldn't take you long. Check after you figure you have got rid of them too as eggs may hatch. Thrips lay theirs right in the leaf tissues underneath and I'm not sure how aphids do it. Mites lay theirs on the surface of the leaves underneath.
An absolute wealth of information you areYes but I also see what looks like a bit of P deficiency tho the pic isn't that clear.
Thrip damage looks like little clear windows in the leaf as they eat by sucking the chlorophyll out of each cell side by side. Mites leave little random dots that can be seen scattered randomly all over the leaf surface. I think you got thrips like I had. Some fly but many species of thrips don't. Like mites, thrips live their whole life cycle in the canopy other than ones that fall into the soil and they will do their best to get back up into the canopy. That sticky trap goo that farmers use in orchards can be used at the base of pot plants too to prevent insects getting up the stem. I always keep a couple of those yellow pieces of sticky tape stuck in a couple of pots to warn me of bugs in my indoor garden.
Fungus gnats show up on them if around but the adult gnats don't damage the plants. Their young live in the soil and feed on the fine root hairs cutting your plants off from nutrients and often the first clue of infestation is really slow growth but plants still look healthy for a while until it becomes chronic. When they become adults they emerge from the soil to mate and the males die off while the females lay their eggs in damp soil then die off too.
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Don't have the ones for mites and thrips unfortunately.