Thysanoptera, or thrips, are little slender insects that have fringed wings and feed on other insects by puncturing them and sucking out their insides. However, some of them also feed on the buds and leaves of a plant. This causes distorted parts of the plant or black specks, which is actually the feces from the thrips. Stippled leaves or blossoms that die before opening are also a sign that you may have thrips.
Not All Thrips on Flowers Are Bad
Form a plan of thrip control that does not include insecticides. Controlling thrips is much better for your plants than getting rid of thrips altogether.
There are other pests that can cause damage similar to that of thrips. This might be mites or lace bugs. Make sure that the pest variety of thrips is what you're dealing with before you take any action to start thrip control. Some thrips are beneficial because they kill other pests on your plants, so you want some thrips on flowers. However, the bad ones need to be controlled and there are some specific ways to go about doing this.
How to Kill Thrips
Controlling thrips is not always the easiest thing to do. Using pesticides will kill the beneficial thrips that may live on the plants, among other things. You don't want to rid the plant of beneficial thrips, so you should use the least toxic control strategies, along with making sure you're using good cultural practices, such as providing consistent watering and cleaning up dead or diseased plant material.
The first step is to prune and dispose of any injured areas on the plant. Regular pruning helps get rid of thrips. Thrips on flowers can be eliminated as soon as you see signs of damage by using a mild insecticide like insecticidal soap or neem oil, or by pruning away the flowers. You never want to shear your plants because the new growth caused by shearing will attract even more thrips than you had before shearing the plant.
Controlling thrips is better than thinking about getting rid of thrips because when you get rid of thrips, you will also be eliminating bugs that are beneficial to your plants. You do not want to do that.
Protect the beneficial bugs, and make sure you control thrips that are not beneficial with appropriate and safe measures.
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