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THRIPS Chilli Thrips click HERE |
| Primary foliage hosts for thrips are: Aphelandra, Ardisia, Dieffenbachia, Ficus, Nephthytis, Philodendron, Sansevieria and Schefflera. |
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| Thrips are small (approximately 1/15 inch long) slender insects that feed primarily on young tissue in the bud or on newly expanded leaves by sucking up sap after rasping surface cells with their mouthparts. Injured tissue dries out giving a whitish or silver-flecked appearance to wounded areas as illustrated by this slide of severe thrip injury to Ardisia. |
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| Infestations of Sansevieria by thrips causes necrosis of the young, expanding tissue, which then callous over and disfigure the resulting foliage. This typical symptom is evident on the leaf in the upper right hand corner of this slide. |
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| Heavy thrips infestations as seen in this slide of banded greenhouse thrips infestation of Aphelandra, can produce necrotic or dead areas in leaf tissue. This symptom is most noticeable on the upper edge of the leaf on the left side of the slide. |
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| Infestations of thrips often result in noticeable deposits of dark fecal material on infested leaf surfaces. Such deposits frequently aid in thrips detection. Concerning the control of thrips in the greenhouse, it is important to realize that thrips infesting flowers or weed hosts on the outside of the greenhouse may migrate into greenhouse ranges in vast numbers and cause rapid and serious damage. Frequently, by the time such damage is very evident, the thrips population is no longer present and control efforts are too late. |
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| Cuban laurel thrips produce severe leaf deformation and defoliation of Ficus nitida, but are not found on any other foliage plants. |
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| Chrysoperla rufilabris (Burmeister) feeding on Echinothrips americanus |
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| Franklinothrips sp. inspecting the remains of an Echinothrips americanus |
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| Franklinothrips sp. inspecting the remains of an Echinothrips americanus |
| More information on
thrips can be viewed at "Insect and
Related Pests of Flowers and Foliage Plants". Click
here to go there now!
Two excellent pages with lots of information on Western Flower Thrips are: Western Flower Thrips in Greenhouses: A Review of its Biological Control and Other Methods |
