I found these on my philodendron yesterday, it is a huge plant with a lot of leaves, each leaf had a handful of bugs. They were very tiny and when I poked at them none flew, just slowly moved a bit then stopped. The affected plant is no longer in the house, but I have 40 plants spread throughout the house (around 18 in the room with the affected plant, including 3 AV’s). To me they most look like thrips, but I would love people to weigh in. I removed the blooms on my AV’s, checked over the AV leaves but really didn’t see anything unusual. I have checked a handful of other plants and found nothing, I have been rinsing all leaves in the process just in case I missed something. Hopefully in the next few days i can check and rinse all my plants. Here are my questions:

1) do these seem to be thrips?

2) a lot of my plants are hoyas and have pretty thick/tough leaves- should these be less susceptible to them? (I read that somewhere but didnt know if it was true)

3)do i need to be checking the soil for them as well or mainly just watch stems and leaves?

4) my AV’s do have some soil debris on the top and bottom of their leaves, should I use a soft brush to gently clean up the leaves or in cases where there could be bugs on the leaves should I rinse them as well? I usually try to avoid any water on their leaves.

I have searched the forums and found some wonderful info, i guess I want to make sure I am on the right path and these are thrips. I have used systemics in the past but have been trying to go more natural routes when possible. Thanks in advance for any help. Katie