How to get rid of thrips with biological pest control?

We, PLNTSparents gain a lot from our plants! Think of air purification, stress relief and a beautiful and thriving decor of course! Overall being a PLNTSparents is super rewarding and fun, but sometimes we come across an issue. These issues can have to do with pests. Pests are little creatures that would love to take a bit of your gorgeous lush foliage, which can cause damage. Of course we would love to prevent this, but sometimes an infestation just happens. In this blog we dive into how you can get rid of thrips, using biological pest control.

How do Thrips damage my plants?

Thrips, as well as their eggs or larvae, are often introduced through new plants, clothes or pets. So they can get in really easily. They are not good fliers, but with their short flight they can spread considerably!

Thrips have sucking mouthparts with which they cause the greatest damage to your plants. First, they grate open the cells and actually cause a kind of wound on the leaf or stem. Plant sap comes out of the wound, where the thrips insert their snout and suck out plant sap from the damaged cells. The leaves are eventually so affected that they turn yellow or brown and eventually fall out. Your plant will slowly deteriorate and may even die if you do not control the pest in time. Oh no!

Irski (Amblyseius swirskii)](/product/biological-pest-control-thrips-amblyseius-swirskii)

Irski is the natural predator of Thrips. They literally eat them raw! These predatory mites are only 0.5 mm in size, so very difficult to see with the naked eye. They eat about 4 thrips larvae a day! If there is nothing left to eat, they will die themselves. Well... this is part of the game. In nature, this is also the way. These rescuers are only interested in your plants, so don't be afraid to find them all over your house.

How to use?

You are convinced! You want to use these saviours on your beloved plants. This specially developed breeding sachet contains no less than 250 predatory mites, which can increase to no less than 800 predatory mites that like to eat thrips larvae. This way, your plant is protected for four to six weeks.

It is very easy to hang the sachet in your plant and it has a special hole from which the predatory mites can escape. Do not tear the bag! The predatory mites like to walk upwards, so hang the bag a little lower in the plant. This will also protect the sachet from the bright sun. One bag of these rescuers is enough for an area of 1 m2 with plants. They can overflow a little. After 1-2 weeks you should see no more thrips, or at least a reduction. However, it is advisable to repeat the treatment after a month, especially in case of a large infestation. If this does not solve the problem, it is advisable to increase the dose of predatory mites per m2.

Preservability

Very interesting that these little critters can be the saviours of your plant, isn't it? If you choose to try this out, we would like to give you these tips. After receiving these irski, we recommend you to use them right away. If you still want to keep them, you can do so for 1-2 days at the latest in a dark, ventilated place at 12-14 °C. In order not to damage the irski, it is advisable to hold the sachet by the piece of cardboard.

Last but not least!

Finally, we would like to inform you that it is important that the room in which the plant is placed (where the irski will be hung) is not too cold. The irski is most effective in warm temperatures of up to 32 °C. They also like high humidity. You can therefore help these saviours by lightly misting the plant(s).

Carna

Our next natural enemy of thrips is Carna. Carna is especially fond of grown thrips and thrips larvae. There natural instinct is to eat lots, which resulted in them also not minding to take a bite of aphids, whiteflies and spider mites. That makes Carna real gluttons! They can consume multiple thrips per day, which makes them really useful for your thrips infestation. Carna are the larvae of the Lacewing, they will be most active at night. After the infestation is gone, Carna will disappear, so you don;t have to worry about having these insects in your house.

How to use

One package is enough for about 10 houseplants. The package contains the larvae and buckwheat hulls. These can be distributed over in the expansion box. This box can be hung up, close to the infected area. Then they go to work!

Preservability

We always advise to directly distribute these heroes to the expansion box immediately after arriving. Would you nevertheless keep the creatures safe, that is possible for a maximum of 1 day. You can keep the package safe in a temperature between 12 and 14 degrees on a dark and ventilated spot. Be careful with the contents of the package, you would not want to accidentally harm Carna.

Last but not least!

You can put Carna to work when you have witnessed thrips or their larvae. They are most effect in temperatures between 20 and 30 °C. Make sure that the temperature doesn’t drop below 15 °C. Otherwise they might not be as effective as you would like. It is also advised to repeat the treatment after 3 weeks, to make sure you will completely get rid of these crawlers.

Those were 2 heroes that can help you with getting rid of a thrips infestation. They can be used separately, but for better results you can apply them at the same time. They wil fight side by side to get rid of the thrips! If you want to know more about thrips, or other pests, you can take a look at our [PLNTSdoctor page] (https://plnts.com/en/care). And maybe you would like to take a look at our blog, where all the pest control blogs and some more handy tips are listed. Otherwise we wish you the best of luck with your thrips infestation!