Thrip-O-Rama

[AccidentalGardener]

After about 60 seconds on the GWE site, I believe my veg tent has the thrips. Tiny white dots on leaves, shiny patches, and a bug that isn't a fungus gnat.

I feel like I caught an STD, lol.

Fortunately, there is hardly anything in the veg tent - two young plants from seed (a GSC and a Purple Kush) and a clone I made months ago. Last week I cleaned out the rest of the veg plants, which were also clones I made - so nothing has come in from elsewhere on a plant. But, thrips are tiny and one could have ridden in on me or anyone else for that matter. There is one sock vent open and that is a possibility.

No matter, though. I had insecticidal soap. Whatever it was, it is now dying a horrible death. Either they are drowning, drying out or exploding, but whatever - tis happening in the dark.
I'll turn the lights back on in about 8 hours.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I've been at war with the little devils for about a month. It seems being on vacation the last week where I could hose down the girls with Lost Coast Plant Therapy alternating with Dr. Bronner's every time I found a live one is the thing that finally knocked them out.

[AccidentalGardener]

May give the whole lot a viking funeral. Always hated that tent, lol

[AccidentalGardener]

I may not need to worry. The operation was a success but the patient is hurting. The GSC is already showing signs that it didn't like the bug soap at all. Bottom set of 5-finger fans totally wilted. . Brought it in and rinsed all the leaves off and stuck it back in the tent. Next time will be 50% or less iso at the very least, spinosad, or a new GSC seed if I snuffed this one.
I am bummed. I hate hurting my plants.

[lalaland]

Death to all pests!! Hope you got most of them, and can wipe them out with follow up

[AccidentalGardener]

I should have sprayed this stupid soap on my ex-husband first...

[lalaland]

Hit him with that stinky Neem if he isn’t budding
I think all exes should chronically smell like garlic and moody oranges

[Gracey]

We've always used Dr. Bronner's peppermint just TBSP or so in a pint of water to get rid of pests but haven't needed it in the closet for a long time. For some reason, after reading about a 1:1 bronner water solution I used it on my kitchen herb garden and killed the whole lot. I knew better and am just happy I killed my basil and cilantro and not my weed. Be careful about the info you find because lots of it is wrong. It's why I like this site, I don't think I've heard outright bs here on the forums and definitely not on the pushed info side with Nebula and Sirius.

[AccidentalGardener]

The peppermint has got to smell better. If I'm going to kill my plants, I want them minty-fresh while I do it, lol. That seems like a very high concentration of peppermint oil for a pint of water unless you were using it someplace that is inorganic-like setting it in a closet, but man, that's a lot of peppermint. Making my eyes water. I'd be gagging and hating Christmas forever. Glad you didn't kill your weed either!

[Gracey]

Yes, that's crazy strong and I can't believe I used it like that, Like I said I normally use about a tbls/quart for all kinds of things, it even makes an ok mosquito repellent.

[ChadWestport]

Thrips are a pain and should be eliminated. Them hanging out on the plants and eating a little isn't the worst thing in the world, BUT, huge but here, they are very well known for carrying pathogens and viruses from plant to plant. When they chew into it, they can effect the plants. So, for the sake of keeping disease away from your plants, get those thrips hard!

[AccidentalGardener]

Nooooo! Down with Thrip Thrax!

[UndergroundFarmer]

I almost killed my mother plants attacking with a solution of Neem oil and Dawn. First mistake was using Dawn - only use natural soaps as surfactants. Second mistake was not reading enough to realize that you can't keep the lights on after spraying with Neem oil. The LCPT is gentle enough to kill thrips and retard secondary infections while the Dr. Bronner's with or without iso alcohol will get the ones LCPT misses, even the eggs. I tried using cayenne pepper in that mix and wish I hadn't - the cayenne wasn't ground finely enough and clogs my sprayer.

[AccidentalGardener]

Boooo! I just keep the rule of thumb - anything I spray on the leaves to kill a pest-WPM, bugs, thrips, has to be done after the sun goes down. Anything that goes in the dirt happens at lights-on. And the more I read about Neem, the more convinced I am that I'd throw plants out before using something on them I don't want to put in my body. If I'm going to throw myself under the bus, it's gonna be for Ben and Jerrys, not Neem oil

[CaptainWiese91]

ISO alcohol with water.
sprayed all my
leaves for a week just before lights out. Every single thrip died

[lalaland]

I’m so surprised to hear about everyone’s experience with Neem oil! I’ve been spraying it weekly in veg on everything, including clones and seedlings with no signs of damage. My plants actually seem to like it?

[CaptainWiese91]

You have mutant plants my friend 😁.
Maybe your ratio is much better suited for the plants. ?

[Farmbuck]

Good to hear that, I panicked and I sprayed some Neem while the girls were flowering, Never again..! The smell from the oil c'est de la merde..! I had to throw the damn shit away, lost some of my colas because of Neem. I try to grow organic but now I have to find a substitute.

[AccidentalGardener]

GAH! The thrips just used the soap to get cleaned up....
Hit them with iso/H2o and turned off the light and fan till they dried -just left the tent open for a bit, then turned it all back on.
If a week of this doesn't kill the bugs, not the end of the world. Currently the only inhabitants of this tent are a GSC that got too tall for her own good and this Purple Kush that seems to be the breakfast of champions for something. I could put them in the trash, disinfect the tent and start over. At $13 per seed (what I paid for these two) its still less of a headache for me to pitch them and start over than to try to kill these damn things for the next couple months.
Hopefully a daily bath in rubbing alcohol mixed with water will do the trick.

[ChadWestport]

Hopefully the adults are getting killed before they lay new eggs. I'd check up on their reproductive cycle, it may help you. They also reproduce a lot faster with upper 70's to 80 degree temps in the grow.

[AccidentalGardener]

So far no new damage. Tonight will be the 3rd application of alcohol. Hopefully are either dying or too drunk to f*ck, lol.
We had an impressive windstorm today - power was out for 4hrs. Temp where the bugs are is a steady 78F when lights are on, try to keep it 70 or above at night. I guess we'll see. I read they can live for 19 days and don't need a 2nd thrip to be a problem. They make new ones with or without mating. Good times.

[ChadWestport]

haha, yeah, power went out a lot of places today. Fortunately, it was all night cycle for me. Lights are back up

[UndergroundFarmer]

If you can find it, Captain Jack's Dead Bug finished off the last of the thrips in my big tent. This is after using Lost Coast about every other day. It definitely helped and the plants seem to like it but it just didn't quite knock out all the bugs. The only downside to Dead Bug is you should only use it once a week.

[kingfish]

I alternate between Captain Jacks and Safers soap.

[AccidentalGardener]

safer soap is what crisped these poor plants. Ya gotta turn off any circulation fan while the plant is wet. Live and learn

[lalaland]

Well ya learned me one too!! I would have left the fans on until they dried

[AccidentalGardener]

I've been spraying them in the morning after the lights come on in the other tent, so I turn theirs off while they dry and I'm tending the flowering tent, and then turn on again about an hour later. I am happy to report there is no new thrip damage to any of the new growth.
That doesn't mean there aren't any, but it means I'm knocking 'em down. Talk about an invisible enemy! Good reason to check your plants carefully every day. It was early days and hopefully they didn't get dug-in, pun totally intended.
Anyhow, I am a true believer in rubbing alcohol for myriad applications.
Heloise with her handy hints would probably be a little horrified, LOL.

[SoOrbudgal]

Good recovery there gal. rubbing alcohol is my scissors friend. Here's another tip.....spray your trimmers with a tad of " veg no stick spray" way easy to clean up the tools after. But then again you may not get the " scissor hash" unless you trimmed alot of bud. Let's hope you do

[AccidentalGardener]

Hiya! Thank you to all who suggested treating thrips with isoprophyl alcohol - aka rubbing alcohol for the folks in back - over a week. If they are not dead, they certainly aren't very hungry.
This is new growth on my baby Purple Kush. I think you can see the damage on a lower leaf. I might just continue for another week in the event the thrips are just resting. Special thanks to CaptainWiese91 for using the F word in a separate thrip post. I said, "That dude is passionate about killing thrips..."
Sure enough, they seem to be subdued for now!
Teamwork makes the dream work, baby!

[lalaland]

Good to see you got that one under control! Thank god they didn’t make it into your flower tent! I’m gonna assume that you’re being really careful when moving from 1 environment to the next, to avoid contaminating your flower tent?
When I had spider mites in my flower room, and another round in the veg room, I came up with the most OCD procedure in an attempt to keep the pests in only the 1 room. It worked, so OCD or not, it was successful
If you don’t already have your procedure down pat, I will definitely explain what I did, even at the risk of sounding completely crazy 😜
You’re a smart lady tho, so I’m pretty sure you got this nailed already

[CaptainWiese91]

Good to see it worked 😎🤟🏻

[CaptainWiese91]

You’re totally right😂.

[AccidentalGardener]

Sometimes you just gotta say "fuckers". It's not rude, it emoting, lol.

[ChadWestport]

haha, classic.

[AccidentalGardener]

lalaland Since the environments are in the same space, I do have a half-assed system in place. I sprayed everything in the veg tent with iso except the lights and fan.
I want those f*ckers dead and contained. For any that thought they'd go for greener pastures.- sprayed the zippers and the door. Never have both tents open at one time. I just don't touch a lot of stuff. Keep my hair up. Wear an apron (I wear an apron all the time and y'all can stop laughing. Come have a cookie. Lol.)
Wash my hands.
No doubt I brought them in on my person. My outside garden got so destroyed the thrips didn't even want to live out there anymore, lol.

Gears been whirring trying to invent a better mouse-trap and I think I have it. Just need to do a little research. New post to follow! Loves me a good highdea!

When my new tent gets here today, I can burn the thrippy-one out in the middle of the street as a sacrifice to whatever gods need appeasing today.
Might be fun on an otherwise funky Monday.
Peace, my anti-thrip friends. I hate those fuckers, too.

[lalaland]

Awesome to hear you have it covered @accidentalgardener
When I was in the middle of the SM infestation my boyfriend was afraid to even come in the house! He still doesn’t go in the rooms, which works for me. At least then, everything that happens in there is entirely my fault, good/bad/otherwise 👍

[hairyman]

How much isopropyl are people using when spraying plants with alcohol? Are you mixing it with water or using full strength? Currently I am using Ortho Bug B Gone I got from the local grow shop. I spray a few leaves at a time when I see thrips but I don't want to spray the buds. Does alcohol hurt the buds?

[Xena]

Must be better out West. Not been a bottle of iso around here for 6 months.

[hairyman]

Accidental Gardener; That was a feeble attempt at humour. The hand sanitizer I have was made in a brewery and contains rubbing alcohol. I already tried dish soap with a bad result so no more experimentation. Xena: Can't you get it online?

[AccidentalGardener]

Lol. Sorry hairyman
You should see some of the questions that us rookies ask. Someone would try it and then come back with dead plants wondering what they did wrong.
Xena you may have to spray yours with sipping whiskey