If the leaves on your plants have silvery streaks and tiny black specks, or your flowers open twisted and discolored, thrips may be the cause. Around your New Milford home, they can turn up on garden flowers, vegetables, shrubs and even houseplants. They're so small that most people never see them, only the damage. The trick to dealing with thrips is catching them early, before their numbers build. Below, we'll cover what thrips are, how to spot them and their damage, whether they're harmful and the practical steps that work. If you're not sure what's affecting your plants, our pest inspection services can help you identify it.
What Thrips Are
Thrips are tiny, slender insects. Adults are often around the size of a comma on this page and can be yellow, brown or black. Their wings are narrow strips fringed with fine hairs, so they look like little slivers rather than flying insects. Young thrips are pale and wingless.
They feed by scraping plant cells and sucking out the contents. Many species feed on flowers and buds, while others prefer leaves. Some thrips are actually helpful predators of other small pests, but the ones you notice on damaged plants are usually plant feeders.
Why Thrips Show Up
- Warm, dry weather. Thrips populations tend to grow quickly in hot, dry spells.
- Flowering plants. Many thrips are drawn to blooms and pollen.
- Weeds nearby. Weedy areas can act as a reservoir that keeps reinfesting garden plants.
- New plants. Thrips can arrive on nursery plants, cut flowers and houseplants.
Because they're small and reproduce fast, a few thrips can become a noticeable problem in a short time. Indoors, thrips can keep breeding year-round on houseplants because there's no cold weather to slow them down. Outdoors, they're usually most noticeable from late spring through summer. Many thrips spend part of their life in the soil or leaf litter under plants, which is one reason they can come back after you thought they were gone.
How To Spot Thrips And Their Damage
- Silvery or bleached streaks. Leaves look scratched or faded where thrips have fed.
- Black specks. Tiny dark dots of waste on leaves and petals.
- Distorted flowers and buds. Petals streaked, spotted or browned, and buds that don't open properly.
- Curled or deformed new growth. Young leaves may twist or cup as they grow.
The tap test. Hold a sheet of white paper under a flower or leaf and tap it sharply. Look for tiny yellow, brown or black slivers moving across the paper. Blue or yellow sticky cards placed near plants are another easy way to see whether thrips are around.
Damage from spider mites and lace bugs can look similar. Mites leave fine webbing, and lace bugs leave dark spots on the underside of leaves. If you're seeing pale speckling on azaleas or other shrubs, our guide to signs of lace bug damage can help you compare.
Are Thrips Harmful?
To your home, no. Thrips don't infest walls, furniture or food. To people, they're a minor nuisance at most. On warm days, thrips can land on skin and occasionally nip, causing a brief prick or mild itch. They don't spread disease to people.
To plants, they can be a real problem. Heavy feeding weakens plants and ruins the look of flowers and vegetables. Some thrips can also spread viruses between plants, which can be more damaging than the feeding itself.
How To Deal With Thrips
- Check regularly. Use the tap test every week or so in warm weather, especially on flowers.
- Isolate new plants. Keep new houseplants and nursery plants apart for a couple of weeks and check them before mixing them with others.
- Rinse plants. A firm spray of water knocks many thrips off leaves.
- Remove damaged blooms. Pick off heavily infested flowers and buds and throw them in the trash.
- Control weeds. Keep weedy areas near the garden trimmed.
- Protect natural enemies. Lacewings, minute pirate bugs and other predators eat thrips. Avoid broad sprays that kill them too.
For specific products on food crops, a garden center or your county office of Rutgers Cooperative Extension can give plant-by-plant advice.
When To Call A Professional
Thrips on garden plants are usually a gardening issue, and EcoFusion doesn't provide plant or tree treatments. But tiny insects are easy to confuse. What looks like thrips could be springtails, booklice, fungus gnats or another pest that lives in damp areas of your home. Our NJ DEP-licensed technicians can inspect your home and yard, identify what you're seeing and recommend a plan using Integrated Pest Management and EPA-registered, eco-safe products.
Thrips are small, but they're manageable when you catch them early. A sheet of white paper and a few minutes a week can keep the plants around your New Milford home looking their best.