Cryermethrin is a restricted use pesticide (only certified applicators). It is listed for control of household pests. Thrips is not listed. Neem oil will work but follow label instructions. MORE is never better!!!!

The best method of control for any insect pest is to be sure your plants are growing in a good, healthy, soil so the plants grow strong and healthy and therefore are more resitant to insect pest attack. Until that happens you always want to start with the least toxic means of control, not the most toxic, so that the natural predators of these pests are not also killed off which allows the pests them to return with no control.
Start with an Insecticidal Soap. If that does not give sufficient control then maybe a Neem Oil product, slowly working your way up to maybe a pyrethrin based product, which are still broad spectrum poisons that will kill even the beneficial insects and those we just like to see such as butterflies.

petzold, though I will never be an advocate for these hazardous pesticides, I'd like to clear up something you said. Cypermethrin, one of the synthetic pyrethrins, is manufactured in many different formulations. Unfortunately, some of those are available to anyone. (That makes this chemical more dangerous in my mind.) Other formulations are labeled as restricted use.

The pyrethrins (a very large chemical family) have come under scrutiny of late. Unfortunately, we know surprisingly little about their long term effects. What is certain is that these chemicals are used on practically everything in the human food chain, either while it's still alive (plant or animals) or dead.

It's also used in a myriad of household pest control products, sprayed from mosquito trucks and planes, and is very commonly used by the pest control people. Chronic exposure can be very dangerous. Truthfully, even a single exposure can cause problems for lots of people and other animals.

OK, I'll get off the soap-box, now. I just wanted to scare the livin' daylights out of anyone who cares, since cypermethrin can be picked up at the local garden center or big box store.

By the way, I'll add my vote for neem as a good control for thrips. Its effectiveness requires that the insect in question feed on the tissues or juices of protected plants, making thrips a good candidate.

What does "ravishing it's new growth" mean?

Thrips usually scar tissue. They don't chew/remove pieces. But they can distort growth.

Can you post an image?

refer to my post linked below

I bought some Organocide which is like a fish emulsion and sesame seed oil blend and sprayed the plant lastnight. I also got this stuff called Sevin which I will try to alternate with the Organocide so the thrips dont become immune.

Here is a link that might be useful: Glenn Mango Post

Also the Cypermethrin I have is called "Cyper WP" I bought it from a do it yourself home pest control website along with a hand pump sprayer and so far have only used it as an outdoor perimeter spray.

It seems to only last for few days before the bugs are crawling over the applied surfaces again, which I read has a pretty quick breakdown period.

It says you can use it indoors but I have 3 Chihuahua's who stay indoors and dont want to risk anything

Thanks for directing me to the image.

So, perhaps they may be thrips.

If so, go the low tox way with insecticidal soap, diluted according to directions. That will require direct hits on the pests, repeated according to the label directions.

Part of the reason to repeat is that thrips pupate in the soil. So, if these are thrips, more will show up later.

mullenium,

You might want to try a systemic control containing imidacloprid, such as Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Protect and Feed or, if the Mango Tree is located indoors, the Tree and Shrub Protect and Feed.

Imidacloprid is also used to control fleas in dogs and cats, although you wouldn't use the products listed above for your pets. As I recall, some flea collars contain imidacloprid.

There are several products for the control of thrips and other insects on ornamentals that also contain imidacloprid. You wouldn't use it on edible plants, because the imidacloprid enters the sap of the plant to affect any insect that feeds on the plant. Some growers alternate imidacloprid with spinosad to prevent the thrips from becoming resistant.

ZM

Carbaryl, Sevin as well as many other brand named products, is a broad spectrum poison that has been linked to endocrine damage in humans. Imidacloprid is under study in France to determine if it is related to the collapse of bee colonies there. Where Imidacloprid has been used there appears to be a collapse in bee populations. If you use the Precautionary Principle, that a product is deemed unsafe until proven safe, you would use neither of these products because of the harm they are both known to do to your environment.

maybe I should take back the SEvin and stick with the Organocide, seems like it worked although we had HUGE winds yesterday and overnight so I cant tell if the spray really worked or if they all were blown off the plant naturally. it left the leaves with a shiny residue due to the oil's though, I hope that wont cause any sort of burn from the sun.

I'll try looking for neem oil as well

With respect to the "Precautionary Principle", are there studies that prove that Organicide and Neem Oil are not implicated in the collapse of bee colonies? Until such studies are made, I am unimpressed that fundamentalist organic gardeners want to apply the Precautionary Principle to as tool to advance their True Believer beliefs while exempting their pet organic nostrums. What's fair for the goose is fair for the gander.

ZM

Another caution on the bee collapse one thing being tested is the use of systemic controls. The thought raised by a beekeeper was that the systemic is in the pollen and sap that a plant has. The pollen is taken back to the hive. This does not explain why few bees are found in a hive but has made me stop suggestion systemics for most uses.

maifleur,

"This does not explain why few bees are found in a hive but has made me stop suggesting systemics for most uses."

It does seem logical that systemics might affect bees if the the systemic makes its way from the sap to the pollen and the nectar. Imidacloprid is a systemic. Ironically, it is related to nicotine, which may be a natural systemic in tobacco. Bayer did publish a rebuttal to the idea that their imidacloprid was the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in bees. But, considering the source, that is not an objective article. The US Department of Agriculture is following the developments on bee colony collapse, with links to a variety of articles. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out.

I don't agree with kimmsr on a lot of things, but I must concede that the Precautionary Principle could be applicable to imidacloprid, particularly where exposure to bees is possible. Apparently cell phones are no longer a suspect in CCD.

ZM

Anyone can disagree with me at any time, just as long as they are not disagreable.
No one has observed a problem with bees dying off where Neem Oil products have been used while this has been observed, and reported, many times with Carbaryl, Imidacloprid, Malathion, and most all of the other organophosphate pesticides. Keep in mind that since bees are not targets of those pesticides the manufacturers of them do not have to test if they would be harmful to the non target species. What we do know today is that all of the organophosphate pesticides are harmful to a wide range of animals, including humans.

There are some questions on Neem Oil. I will see if I can find something more about it. By disagreeing with each other is one of the ways that we open our minds to other things. Like the when I first heard of systemics in connection to bees.

I had advised a friend to use systemics to kill thrips that were damaging his peonies that he sold as cut flowers reasoning that if they eat the juice they would die before much damage. Last summer I went on a field trip to a organic peony grower in Minnesota and noticed that certain peonies were magnets for bees. One thought lead to another. Without the disagreement I would not have even thought of bee damage.

With thrips there seems to be no real effective killer because depending on the kind they can hide in the smallest of spaces on the plant.

I agree that it is a good thing if we can disagree without being disagreeable. And that way we don't fall into the trap of "group think". Whoops! I said I agree. Maybe that was a slip-up. Am I falling into that group think thing?

ZM

"There is no safe chemical; only safe ways of using chemicals".

BRAVO, ronalawn82!!!