Another Bug Question

[Tanya]

As I was removing dead leaves from one of my Tilandsia yesterday, I found a small colony of bugs living and apparently breeding in one of the leaf axils. The adults are black about less than a quarter of an inch in size, with pointed tail that tend to curve upward. The babies are red, or is it dark orange? Their tips are also black. Am I correct to think that this is a colony of thrips? I think some to the adults flew when I dunk the whole plant in a bucket of water.

When I sprayed insecticide on my orchids I never bother to spray the Tilandsia because they seem to have no enemies. I have never thought that bugs escaping the "war zone" when I spray would found refuge inside their deep leaf axils .

[dosal]

Thrips are very small, about 1/16" in length. It is quite impossible to know what you have without a picture, sorry.

[Tanya]

Its ok. Sorry for not providing pic because I don't have a camera good enough to take pic of such a tiny subject. Anyway, I will just treat them as another group of "chompers" although I haven't seen any chomped up roots among my orchids recently.

Thanks

Tanya