If the blue cups is not your cup of tea, Spinosad will help. Not sure if you can get Spinosad in your country though.

I second the spinosad, it’s the most effective thing I’ve ever used for thrips. It also has some organic certifications and is far less toxic overall than most other treatments.

Thanks everyone for the advice. The blue cup idea is intriguing.....got to try it I guess?!!

Also I believe that syrphid flies and pirate bugs both eat thrips. Maybe adding some insectary plants for nectar for those particular insects coukd help. I know they both love dill and yarrow. There are lots of flowers that attract them though too.

Spiders, too, will eat thrips. Mulch provides cool dark places for them to rest midday. And if you see webs between the plants, hoorah—-they’ve set up residence! :-)

Oh yes spiders I forgot about them. They also can fold up leaves to build hideouts in curled up leaves so when you see a sort of rolled up leaf and it has webbing in it you want to leave it.

This explains why I have SO many spiders living in my Eden rose. Thanks little guys! I always shake out the blooms when I cut them for a vase and STILL some manage to get in the house, where they soon need rescuing from my cat. The joys of no-spray. I wonder if they eat midges too?

I have tons of spiders in my garden but they don't seem to make a dent in the thrips population though. Once infestation hits, it is hard to rebalance the ratios of predators and bugs without some other help. But it is good to know that the spiders feed on pests.

As I already have yarrows scattered about the garden, I will look to add some dill into the garden this year.

I have lots of yarrow and companion planting, everything is mulched with wood chip, no weeds, and I've been cutting all the affected and infested buds off and given them to the sheep (the sheep are very happy!) but the thrips seem to laugh in my face.....Today I put a stack of little blue cups out coated in oil and what do you know but they were coated in thrips in about an hour.... the oiled cups may just work!

I had a significant thrips problem last year and have sprayed dormant oil this winter in hopes of getting some control of it this spring. Not that that helps with your immediate problem but it may be something to consider for the future.

Ask your local rose nurseries, they’d know what products are available over there and easy to use.