How to Identify and Get Rid of Thrips on Plants?

What Are Thrips?

Thrips are extremely tiny insects, only 1-2 mm long with slender, elongated bodies. They're so small that it's hard to spot them without looking closely.

Physical Characteristics

• Body length 1-2 mm, like a tiny sliver
• Various colors — black, brown, yellow, or pale yellow
• Two pairs of narrow wings with long fringe hairs along the edges
• Nymphs are wingless and even smaller than adults

Where Do Thrips Hide?

Thrips favor concealed parts of plants:

• Deep inside flower centers (at the base of petals)
• In the crevices of young leaves and buds
• On the undersides of leaves
• Between flower bracts and sepals

How Thrips Feed

Thrips have a unique "rasping-sucking" mouthpart:

1. First, they use their mouthparts to rasp and break the plant epidermis
2. Then they suck up the fluids that ooze out
3. Rasped leaves develop silvery-white speckles
4. Rasped petals become wrinkled, distorted, and discolored

Which Plants Attract Thrips?

• Roses, roses, and other flowering plants
• Peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and other vegetables
• Orchids, chrysanthemums, and other ornamentals
• Almost all flowering plants can be affected