Spinosad seems to be banned now here in Canada, or at least the province of Ontario and I don’t use synthetic/harmful pesticides. So I’m on thrip-duty regularly.
Neem oil, diatomaceous earth, nematodes, Amblyseius swirskii(Predator), blue stick-cards, fans on level-11, temps as low as possible…
Anybody else battling these little bastards in the veg room or greenhouse without spinosad?
…should rename this thread to: Got thrips! What to do?
I would not have guessed that Spin would be banned, Seems to be a very specific action against insects similar to BT, I would not have guessed that it is harmful to humans.
what ended up being effective for you @Scissor-Hanz ? I just discovered 2 nymphs on the back of a leaf, it’s just a few of the lower leafs on one plant thats showing damage right now so hopefully i caught it early and glad i caught it before i flipped to 12/12 … i will be treating with method 1 pps tomorrow but definitely want multiple weapons up my sleeve
Foliar spray and soil drench with nematodes has the most noticeable effect for me. I try to apply every 7-10 days.
$35 worth from Home Hardware lasts a long time, and I spray the whole room. After it dries or the next day, I dust everything with DE.
…and sticky cards catch a LOT of adults.
did your adults fly?? i think i’ve only ever seen the pupae or whatever on the leaves, they’re really fast lil yellow things, are those the adults? i think i’ve defeated them, 23 days after beginning applications…
if i were to do it over again, i would:
begin treating the soil immediately, i was only spraying leaves for the first 2 weeks maybe
spray more thoroughly right from the beginning (running my hands up the stalks while spraying to expose the underside of the leaves.) these things are very small so easy to miss and they reproduce alone so you need to kill every! single! one!
Yes the quick-moving yellow cigar-shaped bastards are the adults.
Mine can fly, yes. I hang a sticky card from the ceiling and they find their way to it.
do they kind of fly weird? like a drunken zig zag path almost?? there was one day i could just barely see something flying but i couldn’t kill it cause it wasn’t flying straight lol
Yes they are very fast and they kind of fly / jump.
I haven’t sprayed my flower room for weeks because there are buds, and the thrips are off-the-charts in there.
Veg room is clean tho because I’m spraying/drenching with nematodes regularly
If you only have a few adults, try sticky cards to catch them
i’m just in a 4x4 tent so i’m just spraying the walls lmao i think i might have gotten it mostly beaten i havent seen any for a few days inspecting daily. do the nematodes for fungus gnats work on thrips too ?
I sometimes use the ‘Swiirski’ in the bloom room where I can’t spray nematodes. They definitely work, but I apply them at 10X’s the recommended dose.
Wish I had some now, but I’m too close to the finish to make them worth the order.
edit: oh if you are in flower already, you may have to be a bit more passive.
They are attracted to blue stick cards, and predators can knock the numbers down.
Ahh i put yellows in, I’m also in ontario… So no spinosad for me eh? and perhaps I will go for ladybugs, I found only ONE but where theres one theres more… Im not sure if my local hydro store carries lady bugs though