Share your cactus thrips experience

[DualWieldRake]

I found out what these miniscule elongated white bugs are, that are running around on all my plants.

Thrips!

 

 

Will these do significant damage to cacti you reckon?

[Kykeion]

Potentially. Similar looking damage as spider mites cause. They seem to love the new tip growth. At least that is what i have experienced in my GH.

[Halcyon Daze]

Yellow sticky-paper traps work well for some bugs, but I don't know about thrips. It would be worth a try.

[bogfrog]

I'm having issues with them this year... haven't quite established what takes them out, I've used neem a few times but I think you need to be really systematic as they reproduce quickly.

 

They have been thriving on my pereskiopsis grafts... not appearing on much else but I've kept them away from the rest of the collection. Damage looks brown and murky.. takes a few weeks to show.

Also I'm pretty sure the white/yellow bugs are the juveniles, the adults are black with a white patch in my garden, although I'm aware that they come in a few different colours. 

Edited November 11, 2017 by bogfrog

[waterboy 2.0]

Yellow traps work for monitoring of most thrips species(a couple attracted to blue as adults) , but not much good for control. Mites and/or Chem control if doing carnage, as always sanitation helps a lot.

 

Important vectors of viruses, their damage causes a flecked pattern, silvery on a lot of plants. They can leave a heap of frass if feeding heavily and it can compound the damage heaps.

 

I haven't had cacti damage I am aware of, but have had other things hammered, and hammered badly over the years. If they get to large numbers they smash their targets hard and fast.

 

They can also develop resistance real quick to things, like other short life cycle sap sucking pests. So if waging Chem war need to cycle through products to win.

 

Adults don't fly too far, but it don't take long for them to spread in a ghouse or spread on clothes/tools. They fly more in the arvo.