Dealing with bugs hereis a possible easy solution.

18 years ago

Hi, Im new here, Lets just say i have had a very violets around the house for a few years, and about a two weeks ago i was at homedepot, and they had flats of them, some great looking plants, actully the best i have seen out of any plant store around, anyways i bought ten of them all differant, the reason i have a huge tropical plant/ pot in my kitchen, covered by windows, and i always plant it each fall with left over annuals for some flowers in the winter, now i know your supposed to keep them in small pots etc, but for 2 bucks a plant i had to try, now i knew there were gonna come home with pests, and thrips, but i figured id give it a try and treat the problem, for this problem and on one plant only so far, i have used bug stop, by specracide, active ingredients permethrin 2.5 percent, now violets are not listed, but orchids are and so are thrips along with everything else, so i made a spray bottle full with a double thick batch, cause this is a test, i drenched the plant above, under, flowers, etc, i mean drenched, than let sit for a minute, and them took a brush and brushed off the hole plant so there was no puddling, lets all flowers and up and coming flower steams on, and so far so good, the plant shows no sign of illness at all, and none of the flowers new or old show any signs of thrips, now i am going to do another treatment the same today, since i know they are little buggers, and it says it only kills active thrips, but the bottle says 4 week control so im gonna think it helps keep some away. ill keep posting. also just so you know all 10 violets a planted around the outside of this huge pot, and all look great, wa better than when i bought them and i want to say starting to look better than my alone plants, all are growing, all have new flower buds coming up, they are planted in a homemade violet mix. any comments please?

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Comments (3)

robitaillenancy1
18 years ago
Hello:

When you treated the plants you drenched them. I guess that means just the rootball?

Thrips live most often in the flowers. You can sometimes see spilled pollon on the flowers.

You can catch flying thrips with sticky yellow or blue cards. You can set them up near the plants or put the plants in a large garbage bag with the sticky card for 24 hours. You may be able to get all flying thrips like this.

For those in the flowers, the best advice I have is something you won't like. Take off every flower and every bud for TWO MONTHS.

I know that's terrible but it will get rid of the thrips. You can try Neem Oil as a spray.

Thrips don't like garlic. Buy some and plant the quarter parts around the plants.

Insecticidal soap may help. It is not effective when dry.

With the small quantity of plants you have I would not recommend chemicals. They can be more expensive than new plants.

Your treatment may or may not be effective for these plants. Hopefully so.

Nancy
littlefishgrow
Original Author
18 years ago
Hi. No i actully took the plant plastic pot and all, and turned in upside and sprayed it dripping wet, the turned it back over, and soaked the top, (left flower on) then let it sit awhile, and took a dry brush and brushed it all so there was no sitting solution on the leaves etc, than just but it back in the window, yesterday i did this once agian, second application, and now its been 2 treatments (with flowers on) and no signs of thrips, and the plant looks great, no spots, no wilting, no anything,its still flowering and everything looks good.
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irina_co
18 years ago
Part of the life cycle of thrips is in the soil.

QUOTE FROM the Virginia extention office materials:

"Life Cycle
Their life cycle consists of an egg, nymph, pre-pupa, pupa and an adult. The exact time required for thrips to complete their life cycle varies with species, temperature and the host plant. Western flower thrips complete their life cycle, from egg to adult, in approximately 10 days at 80Â° F. Adults insert eggs in leaf tissue which hatch in approximately three days. Nymphs feed for four to five days and then drop from the plant to pupate in the soil. Adults emerge after two days of pupation and begin feeding. "

It means that you killed the adults, but there are pupas in the soil and eggs in the leaf tissue. You can expect a new batch hatching - so you need to repeat your spraying 2 more times to nail them all.

I made this mistake when I brought a heavily infested Optimara Colorado home from Denver AVSA convention. I disbudded, sprayed and repotted it in a new soil. I had thrips back in no time - and they spread to the whole collection. I should just leave this thing on the table in the reception room as other people did.

Really thripped

Irina