[Thrips] How bad is Dimethoate to spray on my flowering plants?

HerbalBeast

HerbalBeast

Well-Known Member
Title says it all. Basically I have thrips which I just found yesterday. I looked for Spinosad and there is none available at my location and the only thing I found that kills them is Dimethoate.

Reading about Dimethoate I see that is extremely toxic and so here I am wondering if it's really worth spraying my leaves with it or not?

My babies are in week 6 of flower

Many thanks in advance for your help!
 
HerbalBeast

HerbalBeast

Well-Known Member
I was out looking for ladybugs but to no avail. I ordered some spinosad which will be with me in about a week, hope it won't be too late.

Won't use the Dimethoate unless it's my only option.. maybe..
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
"Dimethoate is a widely used organophosphate insecticide and acaricide. It was patented and introduced in the 1950s by American Cyanamid. Like other organophosphates, dimethoate is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor which disables cholinesterase, an enzyme essential for central nervous system function.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
baxbax said:
what will you do if you have thrips in flowering ?
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the implication is that by the time you put a plant into flower, it should be healthy and have no infestation.
things do happen, there are several species of predatory insects you can use. i would ignore a minor infestation in flower, if it got to be a real problem, i guess i'd try some potassium soap on the leaves and stems, being very careful to get as little as possible on any flowers.
if you get them, get rid of the soil from that plant, they lay eggs in the soil and they can take a good long time to hatch
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
How bad are these thrips? I've fought them by hand in flower and kept the numbers down to hardly noticeable damage to the plants. Had 27 plants at the time too.

Anything you spray on those plants at this stage is going to ruin the buds and thrips don't need anything special to kill them. They aren't even one tenth the pest mites are.

Try to lower temps a bit as their life cycle is twice as fast at 85F as it is at 75. Just smoke a bowl, put on some good tunes, grab a chair and sit down with a big old magnifying glass to rub them out. I could find them easy enough with just my reading glasses on.

Sure it's a hassle but no where's near as bad as spoiling a whole crop spraying anything on buds this late in the cycle.

Good luck!
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Roger A. Shrubber said:
if you get them, get rid of the soil from that plant, they lay eggs in the soil
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As a rule thrips live their whole lives in the canopy and embed their eggs in the leaf tissue. Rules are made to be broken tho so some likely fall into the soil and have no choice but to lay their eggs there so getting rid of the soil is a good idea.

As long as temps are warm the eggs should hatch pretty quick to and with no food the larvae will soon die. They need fresh, living plant tissue for their feed.
 
G

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
Any reason dish soap an h2o2 wont work? I've never found a problem yet with erb that cant be fixed by dish soap, h2o2, and if I feel like cycling it in, peppermint soap.

DO NOT SPRAY ANY PESTISIDE ON YOUR CROP.

If you get to the point your going to use a pestiside in flower late like that, just throw it in the trash. Theres very few hardcore things I'd use even in the past an by that I mean pyrithium bombs but I wont even do that anymore
 
baxbax

baxbax

Active Member
thrips move really fast , it's like they blink , a bit hardy to catch them by hand without damaging some buds ,
 
HerbalBeast

HerbalBeast

Well-Known Member
OK so now I'm super happy that I didn't have Spinosan available as all these comments made me realize what a stupid mistake I was about to make.

OldMedUser I have so far washed the infected leaves with a very small amount of water and soft dish soap and for the last couple of days it seems like they are not as many as they were. Hope I can keep this up until harvest time (3-4 more weeks)

As for the future, I'm going to host ladybugs in my grow room as I'm really not a fan of any chemicals.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
HerbalBeast said:
OK so now I'm super happy that I didn't have Spinosan available as all these comments made me realize what a stupid mistake I was about to make.

OldMedUser I have so far washed the infected leaves with a very small amount of water and soft dish soap and for the last couple of days it seems like they are not as many as they were. Hope I can keep this up until harvest time (3-4 more weeks)

As for the future, I'm going to host ladybugs in my grow room as I'm really not a fan of any chemicals.
Click to expand...
Lady bugs fly. Did you check the link i posted?
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
spinosad is one of the best, safest pesticides available. it has practically no toxicity to humans, and has a very short half life.
it's had an organic rating with the usda since 2003. it does have a systemic effect, and a translaminar effect. that just means you have to use less of it to get the results you want, and it degrades into completely harmless residue even faster.
that being said....i'm not sure what the effects of burning and inhaling it would be, so i don't use it in flower. i've been fortunate, and any problems i've had have been resolved before i had to put a plant into flower. i think i'd just wait to put a plant into flower if it had anything, and get it well before i started.......
 
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