Slc Hsing Buu Lady 'YT Beauty' - a tale of thrips conquered, at last ?

**Dorsetman** · March 1st, 2018, 04:00 AM

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The pic does not do justice to the flower - a more intense colour than shown - we have discussed this before - digital limitations, differences between the human eye and the digital sensor, limits of 8 bit technology etc. whatever...
4 spikes on a plant in a 5 inch pot. Total of about 14 buds. Then thrips blasted one and then another. Great frustration on my part !.
I dipped every plant in the greenhouse ( maybe 1500 plants) using a strong solution of acetamiprid ( Bug Clear ) - 60ml per litre, as recommended for vine weevils . Took 100 litres of solution - ouch - my pocket money gone for the week for more...And this stuff is so potent that advice is not to use more than once every six months, over-use damages the plants. True, I have been there before now.
Then I had another study session. Problem - there is an amazing number of thrips species ( 19,000 ! )and they are so small and elusive, and no way of identifying which one , or maybe ones (?) I have. Could be that "advice for dealing with thrips" is based on a quite different species ! But I found advice on an AOS page suggesting a weekly spray, yes weekly , but on the flower buds only, with three different products recommended. usually, anything recommended in USA is not available here ( and maybe vice versa) - and don't ask me why... But I did find one of them - containing Spinosad, and bought it. I have been using it as recommended, in fact spraying all buds every time I find new ones, for about a month now, and (Hurrah, hurrah ! ) these two spikes are the last ones to show any damage at all. And maybe, by spraying buds where eggs have been laid, I am killing off the entire stock of thrips, bit by bit ? I can but hope.

I do have thrips damage of a different kind ( maybe a different species of thrips ?) in the form of bulls eye puncture marks on cymbidium leaves. Of course, by the time I see them, the damage is done, and probably the insect ( larval form) has gone away. They too were dunked in acetamiprid - everything was - but I don't see any point is the weekly spray here.