thrips

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birdlady1944 Mesick, MI(Zone 5a) May 01, 2002

i am new to dave's garden i have a small farm in northern michigan
i have thrips in my irises i have grown iris for many years and never had any trouble until i ordered some glads from a mail order company they came complete with thrips
i cannot get rid of them does anyone have any ideas?
thank you for your help
birdlady 1944

This message was edited Friday, May 3rd 10:35 PM

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LittleShima Tucson, AZ(Zone 9b) Jul 29, 2003

Birthdaylady 1944(thats my year too!) The same thing happened to me this year! Never a problem and the glads were loaded. The thing was that they didn't show up until they were getting ready to start blooming. The plants were hudge and suddenly there they were. I have wondered where they came from too. I sprayed with malathon to no avail, my flowers were lousy and sadly after all the waiting for the beautiful flowers, I had to cut all 200 of them down. Then I wondered about the bulbs and went ahead and pulled all of them out and threw them away. Do these things stay under the ground? I have used diazanon granuels in the past for grubs, now I wonder if the thirps are under ground if I maby should go ahead and do the diazanon thing again just in case, before I plant bulbs again? Does anyone know how to recoginize them in the beginning??

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Calalily Deep South Coastal, TX(Zone 10a) Jul 29, 2003

Thrips are very common in the landscape. They are blown in on the wind, they thrive in weeds, they overwinter in soil and plant tissue(especially clover, alfalfa and other debris). They multiply like crazy, they suck the juice out of plant tissue and spread disease and they are resistant to many chemical controls.
One interesting thing about them, both adults and instars feed on spider mites! The life cycle from egg to adult can vary from 10-30 days.
You can use minute pirate bugs as predators if you can find somewhere to order them. There are some sprays on the market that will control them, Avid is one. Some kind of insect growth regulator like Neem would be a good choice. It interfers with molting, they can't shed their skin and can't move up to the next stage so they die.

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NoH2O Everson, WA(Zone 8a) Jul 30, 2003

I have read that you can soak glads in a bleach solution before planting to kill thrips. More info here:

http://spokane-county.wsu.edu/spokane/eastside/flowers%20landscaping/C049%20Gladiolus.pdf

Post #597665
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