Thripps... again

[OzoneNY]

They nearly wiped me out last year and they are on track to do it again. I have confirmed thripps but I am not sure what I can really do about it. Last year I used every spray I could find and I kept them somewhat in check but I eventually lost the battle. Any ideas on how I can get the upper hand against these evil insects I would appreciate it. I will do anything to get rid of them if that is even possible.

[Scooty]

What spray did you use?

[OzoneNY]

Originally Posted by Scooty

What spray did you use?

This stuff

http://www.amazon.com/Monterey-Garde.../dp/B002BP12LI

[Scooty]

Not sure how this applies to your specific case and location. But I remember reading about thrips showing signs of resistance to spinosad on the west coast. The other organic alternative (presuming that is why you chose spinosad) would be pyrethrin. One step further would be permethrin for the semi-natural nuclear option. (I hope you have no cats in the immediate area or pond run off though for pyrethrin and permethrin.) After that it's just full blown conventional options.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by OzoneNY

This stuff

http://www.amazon.com/Monterey-Garde.../dp/B002BP12LI

I usually have thrips that wipe me out every year. This year i have none. Im rotating between 3 products. Week one i dusted the whole garden in Diatomaceous Earth. Week 2 i sprayed Neem Oil. Week 3 the Monterey Garden Insect spray with Spinosad. Week 4 DE again and so forth. Im on week 6 and no signs of thrips or spider mites. Aphids are almost gone. Darn near nothing lives in my mater patch. Its even taking care of the ants. Im also pruning down to single sometimes double stem and keeping the foliage well away from the ground. So far its working.

[OzoneNY]

Originally Posted by heirloomtomaguy

I usually have thrips that wipe me out every year. This year i have none. Im rotating between 3 products. Week one i dusted the whole garden in Diatomaceous Earth. Week 2 i sprayed Neem Oil. Week 3 the Monterey Garden Insect spray with Spinosad. Week 4 DE again and so forth. Im on week 6 and no signs of thrips or spider mites. Aphids are almost gone. Darn near nothing lives in my mater patch. Its even taking care of the ants. Im also pruning down to single sometimes double stem and keeping the foliage well away from the ground. So far its working.

So you take the carpet bomb approach. Sounds like that may be my only hope.

[Scooty]

Actually what heirloomtomaguy describes is more like a rotating drug cocktail to kill of stragglers developing resistance.

1. DE kill off starts
2. survivors die to neem oil
3. survivors of neem oil/resistance die to spinosad
4. repeat

In an actual drug cocktail regiment like when they do antiviral/cancer treatment, you'd normally do two or more drugs. Some farms take the same approach with pesticides, but I've usually only heard about this done for heavy infestations or a location with prior heavy infestation. Depending on your past experience with neem oil, you could sub or throw in pyrethrin, permethrin, or some other spray at week 4 to cover those thrips/bugs with resistance to spinosad.

[OzoneNY]

Originally Posted by Scooty

Actually what heirloomtomaguy describes is more like a rotating drug cocktail to kill of stragglers developing resistance.

1. DE kill off starts
2. survivors die to neem oil
3. survivors of neem oil/resistance die to spinosad
4. repeat

In an actual drug cocktail regiment like when they do antiviral/cancer treatment, you'd normally do two or more drugs. Some farms take the same approach with pesticides, but I've usually only heard about this done for heavy infestations or a location with prior heavy infestation. Depending on your past experience with neem oil, you could sub or throw in pyrethrin, permethrin, or some other spray at week 4 to cover those thrips/bugs with resistance to spinosad.

Makes perfect sense. Since DE is otherwise harmless I will pick some up tomorrow and add it to the routine

[heirloomtomaguy]

After years of not spraying i have no choice. My house backs up to train tracks that are covered in weeds. The thrips dwell just outside my property in massive numbers. Im not losing my plants this year.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by OzoneNY

Makes perfect sense. Since DE is otherwise harmless I will pick some up tomorrow and add it to the routine

DE took care of the majority in a day. It works really great. The problem for some with my schedule is that your going to kill beneficial bugs. But if you kill all the bad bugs you wont have good bugs anyway so in reality you only really kill the good bugs once.

[Scooty]

Originally Posted by heirloomtomaguy

DE took care of the majority in a day. It works really great. The problem for some with my schedule is that your going to kill beneficial bugs. But if you kill all the bad bugs you wont have good bugs anyway so in reality you only really kill the good bugs once.

I suppose that can't be helped if you are limited to a choice of killing most if not all bugs and getting tomatoes vs not killing bugs (good and bad) and getting no tomatoes or almost no tomatoes. My concern would mostly be with a multispray regiment. Even organic sprays and applications can have a negative impact on productivity. At a high enough dosage (it would require a LOT of spraying to do this), even neem oil and pyrethrin can kill of your plants.

[PureHarvest]

HTG, wasn't it you that applied beneficial nematodes to try to eliminate the larval stage of the thrips?
If not, that could be another layer for you.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

HTG, wasn't it you that applied beneficial nematodes to try to eliminate the larval stage of the thrips?
If not, that could be another layer for you.

Yeah i did last year and it worked really well however the spider mites destroyed me last year. I left the plastic i grow through in this year to get a second season out lf it so i was unable to apply the beneficial nematodes this year. Im trying this method so i actually get something this year. I have yet to see a decrease in production yet so for now all is well. As soon as i see 0 thrips i will probably just use DE every couple weeks.

[OzoneNY]

I sprayed with spinosad this evening. Can the beneficial nematodes be applied after or will the spinosad kill the todes? What about DE? Will it kill the todes?

[Gardeneer]

How about using sticky tape ?
I think I have seen something like that in another thread. I am not sure it was for thripps though.

Gardeneer