Naysen, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles but it may not be so bad. I also had a thrip infestation this year - noticed it about 2 to 3 weeks ago. I always have some thrip when the grasses and weeds die on the levee behind me and the thrip move to live plants. This year seemed worse but I think it is because I replaced my lawn with native annuals. It was a beautiful wildflower meadow for 2 months then died with the rest of the levee annuals so probably I was hosting more thrip than normal or possibly it is a bad thrip year in our area. I emailed arbico organics and asked for a recommendation for thrip in our area. (not all predators do well in our dry hot weather ). Their recommendation was lady bugs or lace wings. It is expensive to order live lacewing larva or adult but not bad for the eggs. The eggs take a few weeks to hatch and be useful. So far I haven't done anything except give the plants a brisk spray with water to knock off as many as I can and gave the plants some micronutrients (azomite) and organic tomato food. I'm still considering ordering lacewing eggs but I am starting to see more ladybugs in my yard. Although I had some flowers drop in the last few weeks most of the plants are starting to set fruit again so I may not do anything. I think next year I will order lacewing eggs early so they are hatched about the time the local annuals die. I have never sprayed with any pesticide in my yard because I want the butterflies and native bees. So far it seems the benificials always show up soon after the pests. Hopefully that helps.
Marla
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