Hello,

According to the label - if you are treating against mites - and this is the main target of Avid - 1.25 ml per gallon - or 1/4 teaspoon. Avid will definitely kill thrips,aphids, fish, bees...you name it. You make a solution - you need to use it all = after 24 hour it is spoiled. You need to spray 3 times week apart.

Avid is quite expensive and hard to get in small quantities.

There is another cheaper alternative - Conserve, you can get it easier.

I would wait for Nancy Robitaille to give you an input - she knows all about them pests and how to treat them without poisoning the whole subdivision.

I would try to remove all blooms and buds and spray with something else - 3 times week apart - with Shultz spray or lice shampoo before going after the big guns. It depends on the size of your collection as well.

Good luck

Irina

Thanks irina, I've already removed all the blooms and my AV's look naked. I have about 50 mature plants and another 150 + or - smaller plants and leaves. I bought some avid a few months ago when i had some extra money, just for this kind of thing.

Irina, what about the lice shampoo? Like "Rid"?

I don't have them now, but it's only a matter of time....

Barbara

Uh, thrips, not lice. But I guess you never know.....

Barbara, starting to itch...

I have found Conserve to be the very best thing for thrips. It does not harm the blossoms. As with most treatments, spray once a week for 3 weeks. I feel that Avid is pretty much overkill for thrips, and is not as effective as Conserve. You could also spray lightly with the House & Garden Raid spray, but it will damage the blossoms. Avid is absolutely WONDERFUL for mites, though!
Good luck!
Marjorie in Corpus Christi TX

Yes Ive read about the rid shampoo also and the rubbing alcohol, now I dont know if these work but sound interesting. I had a thrip infestation and knats and after I got rid of the thrips I bought these blue sticky cards which attract the thrips. If you have a thrip invasion you will notice that any blue blooms seem to get the most damage. I hang these from the ceiling in the area of my plants and havent had a thrips since I started using these cards, its also deadly against the knats. At one point I was using a misting for humidity and this seems to attract the knats, I dont mist anymore.
Also I used to water from the top which I dont do anymore. Take my word for it , the sticky cards really help for anyone that hasnt used them.

This is my first invasion of thrip and i found it on a dark blue bloom. I started looking around and found it on several others as well. I use some of those sticky pad for gnats but i'll have to find some blue ones and try them. Thanks for all the info, ya'll have been a lot of help

You have received a lot of good advice although as mentioned, Avid may be overkill. However, if you have it that may be the solution to getting rid of those nasties.

(For the gnats, try 1 teaspoon bleach in one gallon water and water the plants thoroughly with no fertilizer. You may have to repeat once or twice. This should kill eggs and gnats that are not flying. The sticky yellow or blue cards will get the fliers.)

Note that blue is not the favorite color for thrips, you are just able to see them more easily on that color than on other colors. They like the other colors just as well.

If you want to try a natural control first instead of using a strong chemical, smash up some garlic into conttainers and place among plants. Or plant garlic and grow them right along with your plants. Thrips hate garlic. BUT, garlic will not control them. You will have to get rid of them first then use the garlic to keep them away.

Thrips can easily come in with new plants, flowers or through the screen in summer. Garlic will chase them away but will not kill them.

Another natural product is insecticidal soap which is not a true insecticide but will control thrips somewhat. This soap is not effective once dry so you need to repeat treatments as often as twice a week to get the job done.

Keep us up to date when you are thrips-free. They carry terrible viruses that can ruin your collection.

Nancy

Thanks Nancy i'll use your advise on the gnats while i'm attacking my thrip problem. Thanks everyone, David

There are a lot good ideas and remedies for you and your thrips and probably avid is overkill but you already have it . Im in dissagreement with some on here about what thrips are attracted to. I had a sizable collection all different colors and before I knew what was going on my dark blue flowers were basically destroyed, I just thought it was their life cycle. What looked like polen spills or lint , but nudged the leaf and I saw these critters moving. Yes thrips will go to the other colors after theyve taken the life from the other blooms which are dark blues. Ive seen it , experienced it and if you wait long enough you would see what I experienced. If you have trouble finding the blue cards and are interested you can go where I went , go here

Here is a link that might be useful: reeds greenhouse

David - use AVID 3 times week apart and while you are spraying - try to soak soil too. The gnats larvae lives in a first inch of soil. I usually add some lice shampoo (yeah, Rid) just because I have it and a bit of soap helps to wet all the surfaces. The active ingredient in lice shampoo is pirethrine - same as in Shultz spray. It is a synthetic analog of a natural insecticide that one species of mums produce. It is supposed to be non-poisonous to the warm blooded creatures. (yeah, right)

Steve -

you are right - thrips are actually everywhere. If you have them on your dark blues flowers - you have them chomping on your baby leaves, larvae eats roots or just waits to turn into adults in a soil etc. But big dark flowers are great for monitoring. Works better than sticky cards. Sticky cards are not for extermination - they are just for control - so you know that you have them so you can do something.

Cheers

irina

Thanks again. Im copying and pasteing all this good info so i'll have it close at hand. Thanks again, i can tell those thrip are in for a big shock. :)

Hello all, I think i finally got those little bugers but i'll keep watch for a while longer. Thanks,