Many thirps in day 40 of flower

Unfortuntely I got this horrible Thrips in the middle of week 5 of flower.

I dont have access to beneficial predtors, or a lot of products (since I am in Asia). So what can I do? Or these plants will just gradually decline and die?

there's a few things you can spray on your whole plant to reduce thrips growth and population, search for it and be careful not using toxics things if you have planned to cut your plants soon

Spinosad soap worked well for me on thrips. Unfortunately, the thrips transmitted powdery mildew which led to an early demise of that crop.

You may want to try mosquito netting around your pots, at least make it harder for them to lay eggs.

I've been using netting for fungus gnats, it definitely helps but so far nothing has worked to kill the gnats (including h202, spinosad soap, and mosquito bits). I can't imagine how much worse it would be without the nets.

Lol damn that looks funny. Thanks. I didn't see bugs in my media that's mostly peat. I'm running soiless peat vermiculite synthetic. No fungus gnats I think

I ordered spinosad. And sprayed with 1 teaspoon per quart of potassium soap today. I'm gonna go see how many died yet...

Two pests that are almost impossible to stop. I use a larvicide and put up the yellow sticky traps from the start for prevention of fungus gnats. I have no idea how to stop thrips. I have a ficus tree infested with them & used neem oil & pesticides but that only slows them down.

Overgrowtho said:

Lol damn that looks funny. Thanks. I didn't see bugs in my media that's mostly peat. I'm running soiless peat vermiculite synthetic. No fungus gnats I think

I ordered spinosad. And sprayed with 1 teaspoon per quart of potassium soap today. I'm gonna go see how many died yet...

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My gnats came in FF Ocean Forest, I didn't let it dry out long enough (I know better, just made a mistake). I am now pastuerizing the soil in the oven, 15 minutes at 350 degrees F, then 30 minutes at 250 degrees F.

To be honest, I think I've had a bad gnat infestation before and didn't know it because I didn't have the yellow sticky traps in the tent. I would see one or two flying around and think no big deal. Now, with just two flowering plants you see in the picture, I have been getting 15-20 gnats caught in the yellow traps every single day, I know this because I count them every morning and crush the newly caught gnats with my finger, so I know how many are new each day. They seem to hatch and escape from the net somehow - the holes in the airpots have been like hotel california for the gntas, I'm going back to cloth smart pots, no drain holes.

This has been the routine for 10 weeks of flowering, I just harvested this week. Ironically, despite the gnats and the deficiencies they caused, this harvest might be the most potent, certainly one of the stickiest I've ever grown.

Lol but gnats aren't really related to thrips or are they?

Overgrowtho said:

Lol but gnats aren't really related to thrips or are they?

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They both lay eggs in the soil, so my thinking is make it harder for them to lay eggs while you try to eradicate them. Just an idea, FWIW.

Offmymeds said:

Two pests that are almost impossible to stop. I use a larvicide and put up the yellow sticky traps from the start for prevention of fungus gnats. I have no idea how to stop thrips. I have a ficus tree infested with them & used neem oil & pesticides but that only slows them down.

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I have a tree outside my shed(loads of wet soil covered in gnats) and my room gets covered with fungus gnats, I see them in my flower room daily but make it impossible to stay. my pots have raised drainage holes, the pots go on a flat round tray, I use 2" of sharp sand on top of the soil, so they can't get to the soil to lay eggs. (mess their life cycle)

Markshomegrown said:

I have a tree outside my shed(loads of wet soil covered in gnats) and my room gets covered with fungus gnats, I see them in my flower room daily but make it impossible to stay. my pots have raised drainage holes, the pots go on a flat round tray, I use 2" of sharp sand on top of the soil, so they can't get to the soil to lay eggs. (mess their life cycle)

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I used a thin layer of vermiculite over my coco when fighting them after an infestation already started. I think I went through 4 large sticky traps.

I would've used sand or DE to cover the top of the soil, except the gnats are coming and going thru the endless drain holes in the airpots. That's why I tried the netting instead. Never using air pots again, what a waste of money.

Fuck I just noticed thrips all over my plant that's hard to reach in the back. Even the buds are covered!!! I just noticed this after coming back to check a few hrs after spraying potassium insecticide soap. Which by the way didn't seem to kill em.


I will add a layer of vermiculite.

I'm afraid this will get worse before better.

Spinosad won't arrive for weeks but I have some perithium arriving in... a few days. Insecticide soap and vermiculite my only weapons at the moment. And sticky traps lol but infestation is already raging

The sand should prevent the ADULTS from laying EGGS thus no more larvae, if the ADULTS do lay any eggs, the sharp sand cuts the larvae up into bits. Larvae live in the top 2 inches of the soil(in my case sand) there is no food for the larvae and the sand dry's out really quick, after watering the plants the sand and soil mixes but it still dry's out quick. (still 80% sharp sand).

normally gnats are a problem if your humidity is too high, no airflow between the lower canopy and the soil/coco, also watering the plants too often.

Gnats love drainage holes, (air pots or fabric pots are a really bad choice if you get gnats).

I have fabric pots. Damn so will vermiculite be as effective as sand pretty much? I got it laying around.

Markshomegrown said:

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Gnats love drainage holes, (air pots or fabric pots are a really bad choice if you get gnats).

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Why fabric pots? There are no drain holes.

i guess i’ve been lucky as i’ve always had an abundance of these beneficial dudes in my soil because its mostly ewc and no chemicals are used they live and multiply as they please.

they eat both fungus gnat and thrip eggs and larvae so yay for biological diversity and now that i mentioned it i havent checked on them lately so i should see if they are happy and well colonised atm because i have stopped geowing for a couple of months due to house renovations and just started a month ago and forgot to check to see if they are still there oh i hope they are!

Overgrowtho said:

I have fabric pots. Damn so will vermiculite be as effective as sand pretty much? I got it laying around.

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Can you get hold of citric acid powder?

@xtsho i can’t remember can you spray buds etc with critic acid solution for killing pests during flower?

jondamon said:

Can you get hold of citric acid powder?

@xtsho i can’t remember can you spray buds etc with critic acid solution for killing pests during flower?

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I personally would not spray anything on flowers past around 3 weeks. However, both Nukem and Dr Zymes which are citric acid based commercial products say you can spray up until harvest. They don't say what plants though.

Make sure if your using mosquito dunks/bits to mix it into your irrigation water. Don’t just sprinkle ontop of media and water in. They only started working for me when I did this.

xtsho said:

I personally would not spray anything on flowers past around 3 weeks. However, both Nukem and Dr Zymes which are citric acid based commercial products say you can spray up until harvest. They don't say what plants though.

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Seeing people on THCFARMER say they use NukeEm as a harvest day dip but that was back in 2012 lol.