Thanks, that is important good news. Are you in Florida?

I'm in Houston, TX. Chilli thrips were first positively identified here in 2007, but spread quickly. The population exploded during the extended drought of the past couple of years.

Thanks for the tip! I've heard of using oils and such before, but I was always afraid of burning the foliage to a crisp since the heat is way up. I'm interested in trying this out though. What did you use?

Way to go,greentiger!!! Could someone post a picture of a thrip-eaten plant? Are Chili thrips different from regular thrips? I suspect I may have some kind of thrip, but it just eats the flowers of the roses, not the leaves...bart

Bart, everybody has flower thrips, which are very different from chilli thrips. Chilli thrips so far are mostly limited to Florida and the Gulf Coast, zone 9-10.

The Houston Rose Society has a page on chili thrips. At the end, after discussing chemicals, they say that the gardener at the Houston Garden Center in Hermann Park, says he sprays every two weeks with insecticidal soap and there are no chili thrips on the hundreds of plants. This article was written several years ago, but last time I was there I didn't see any evidence of thrip damage on any of the plants I looked at.

May the Garden Center rest in peace, it's being torn down and rebuilt, rose garden torn out, too, and will be replaced with a new building and garden next year sometime.

I know I only have regular thrips (frankinwhatever) but I had them BAAAAD and maybe some of you will find this worth a try.
I tried spraying with something nasty once 4 years ago- (it worked, temporarily) but decided quickly it wasn't worth the health of myself and the planet to spray my garden routinely for thrips and so last year I switched to organic soaps only and added nematodes to the soil. It helped to a degree.
But I started this year with a pretty bad infestation (leaves more yellow from stippling, than green- all flowers scarred or just unable to open) and after watching my purchased lady bugs fly off, again, I decided I needed to quit killing aphids with the soap so the ladybugs would stay and lay some eggs, so then the lady bug nymps (alligators! who can't fly!) would be there eventually and eat the thrips.
... and doing nothing worked great.
I also had a bunch of minute pirate bugs and lacewings adopt my garden (yay! first time ever) and the thrips now have predators to eat them and seem to be gone. No more nose full of bugs when I sniff. I look to make sure there isn't pirate in there ready to bite me now tho! But No more ruined blooms.

I did a google search on "aphids and thrips" and found that some people agree- you need aphids to get rid of thrips. The aphids do so little damage, and they've been eaten up anyway now too.

So- I know I didn't have chili thrips, but I found that even the soap left me worse off than before for the regular thrips since it was removing all predators of thrips.
I don't have any other problem bugs in the garden I can't squish (no JB, no sawflies etc.) so I understand my solution isn't for everyone- just tossing this out for those who may only have a severe flower thrip problem.

I hate to be a debbie downer, but as I understand it (and living in Dallas) thrip activity dies down significantly during the summer. Even my roses beds (untreated) are thrip free for the time being.

It may be too early to tell that the oils and soaps were the determining factor.

Josh

Josh, that's odd because in Florida the chilli thrip activity goes way up in the summer. In the cooler season, the thrips go away. Maybe you are thinking about regular flower thrips?

Yeah, I've actually been looking forward to September being here because it's one step closer to cool weather. I'm going to try the insecticidal soap next year. When you see the damage, you're really willing to try anything!

Josh, in Dallas you have flower thrips but probably not chili thrips. In my garden, flower thrips peak toward the end of the first flush of bloom.

I have chili-thrips again this year, bad.... I read an interesting art. in the Rose Soc. bulletin by geof. Coolidge, from Cool Roses in W. Palm ,, he says early in the spring work some systemic thrip-poison into the ground around the roses so they absorb it before the thrips wake up, I think he said Ortho , read the label instructions.. I searched HD also Lowes but neither store had any in stock... has anyone tried this? he also says to just dead-head during the summer, don't cut back as this encourages new growth, and the chili thrips love new growth and buds, and don't bother old growth..... I hope I recalled the gist of this art. correctly, I thought it made a lot of sense...and I'm going to try and stock up on the systemic before next spring and see if it's effective in my garden.... LOL, sally

I, too, have heard that aphids get rid of thrips. My sad tale is that I used to have tons of aphids,but no thrips; I started spraying (my main hope was to get rid of beetles). It did nothing to the beetles, got rid of aphids , and now I'm pretty sure I have thrips (regular kind),since some "invisible bug" chews up the blooms so badly! So my new thing is : do NOT spray against insects! and hopefully Nature will balance things out again,and the aphids will come back...a sadder but wiser bart