BCSS - Forum

I recently bought some Begonias that have thrips. I assume they are Western flower thrips, which are apparently difficult to get rid of. I am just going to throw away the Begonias, but I am concerned they could have already spread to my other houseplants, so I'm looking for something I can treat them with. I haven't actually seen any on anything else yet so I guess I am looking for something systematic?

I had spotted what looked to be virus symptoms on some of the Begonias that I have already thrown away, so I really don't want the thrips to spread this to my other plants.

The other houseplants I have that I am looking to treat are things like Hoya, Dischidia, Peperomia, various epiphytic cacti, Ceropegia, Senecio and various orchids. I know Hoyas can get attacked by thrips.

I don't think thrips are a typical cactus and succulent pest, but I thought someone here might know something about them.

Abamectin is effective against thrips and can be freely bought (at a price) as a ready-to-use spray under the name Fazilo, from Compo.

You might have to try a biological control. There are beetles available to control the adult insect and the larvae

I haven’t seen beetles used as control, do you have more info on that?
There are a couple of predatory mites available which I am in the process of trying for the last year with quite good results.
Sadly western flower thrips are resistant to most insecticides so you are unlikely to get better control of them with chemicals than with predators

This stuff kills WFT.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Insect-Spray-w ... osad+spray

Spinosad is a natural substance made by a soil bacterium that can be toxic to insects. It is a mixture of two chemicals called spinosyn A and spinosyn D. It is used to control a wide variety of pests. These include thrips, leafminers, spider mites, mosquitoes, ants, fruit flies and others.

Resistance to Spinosad is recorded unfortunately

I use yellow sticky fly traps, there are a lot of Chinese vendors vying for your business on that well known auction site.
It works for me as it catches every generation and boy what a sight to behold when the trap fills up, literally, tens of thousand of every insect under the sun.
I am sure there are some traps shown on my recent Pachycaul post.

Ali Baba wrote: ↑Sat Oct 27, 2018 2:23 pm Resistance to Spinosad is recorded unfortunately

It works for me.....I can watch them curl up and die.

As they do for me with acemitaprid however it’s the ones that come back you need to worry about . Interestingly they don’t seem to be resistant to plant oil based sprays, but it is impossible to get them all as it only works on contact.
Sticky traps only get the adults (blue is apparently better than yellow) and then only a small proportion. If you are trapping loads of adults then you have a serious thrips infestation

Ali Baba wrote: ↑Sat Oct 27, 2018 8:27 am I haven’t seen beetles used as control, do you have more info on that?
There are a couple of predatory mites available which I am in the process of trying for the last year with quite good results.
Sadly western flower thrips are resistant to most insecticides so you are unlikely to get better control of them with chemicals than with predators

Its called Orius laevigatus and is mostly available for commercial users but there are places that sell to the home user