thrips and ladybugs

I thought this was fairly hilarious. I had guests in my house a few months ago, so I hid my plants outside during that time. After I brought them back in, I discovered that they had been infested with thrips.

Anyway, I had the door to my back balcony open earlier today, and lo and behold, what should make its way inside? A ladybug ... the thrips' most tenacious natural predator! I feel like I have a miniature ecosystem is at work in my closet. It's cool.

i friggin hate thrips, you should buy lady bugs, one isnt gonna do much but a handful will knock them out the box...problem with thrips is you can spray your plants and kill all the adults but they lay larva in the medium, lady bugs wont go digging in the medium, this happened to mothers of mine and i wound up ditching them cus they were in soil

Yeah, thrips are a bitch. I have had decent success at lowering their population by putting sticky traps everywhere, but it still just reduces them, it doesn't get rid of 'em. After the current crop is done flowering, I will probably do a thorough cleaning and start from scratch.

Anyway, the thing is that these ladybugs gravitated to my closet on their own. I only saw one yesterday, but today there are three of the buggers. It seems like every time I open a south-facing door, a few ladybugs wander in, and they are drawn to my closet like a magnet because of the light. I think that is so cool! I had been catching the unwanted ladybugs and tossing them outside, but I think I'll start tossing them in the closet instead. Nature is free, and I think it's hilarious that I have my own little ecosystem thriving in my closet. I just hope the ladybugs don't wander out of the closet and turn into pests themselves.

no, the lady bugs were attracted to your grow for food, they love thrips, the thing is fox farms has a pyrethrium spray called "dont bug me" its very good and not toxic on you or the plants, your not gonna spray shit on your flowering plants so the lady bugs during flower may be your only line of defense, i got rid of all thrips by killing all plants in soil, changed everything over to pure perlite...this i only do for mothers everything else is hydro, like i said ditch the soil all you needed was one thrip to get in a bag at your local shop

Hmm. Not a bad suggestion. I generally take pride in growing from soil, but truthfully, maybe it is just stubbornness when it comes to trying something different.

Anyway, you are right about not wanting to spray anything. Sadly, this is my flowering room. For now, I am trying not to let it piss me off too badly. It is actually kind of cool to smoke and think abstractly about the fact that I have a little ecosystem, starting with photosynthesis and encompassing several layers of the food chain, all thriving in my tiny little closet. Also, the ladybugs are kind of pretty to watch crawling around the leaves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k78UMXGb26k

But after I have harvested, it's gonna be ... DIE MOTHERFUCKERS, DIE. I will tear everything down, clean and sterilize with bleach solution and/or heat, and vigorously attack with the pyrethrium if I see any hints of infestation on my new veg plants.