Hasn't found my garden just yet, but I expect it anytime now. Ugh, what a scourge.

What's the diff in reg thrips and chili thrips? Thrips hit my garden at the end of my spring flush thankfully and still seeing some now. Hoped the heat and dry weather would make them leave along with blasted beetles.

I only have the regular thrips here in NE FL so far. Once they appear then the little green tree frogs start sitting inside the rose flowers and gobble them up. I was wondering what all these little frogs were doing in all the roses all of the sudden. Then I saw them eating thrips.

(Also, let me know how the blue cup thing works out for you. I though about trying out those yellow thrip papers before but never have.

Oh and also the other thing I did differently this year that I think may have helped is that I use a liquid fertilizer once a week every single weekend. I never used to fertilize them this often (even though it says on the package you can do it as often as every 7 days) but once I started doing that, its almost as if the plants grow faster than the black spot and chili thrips can decimate them. I'm a little worried about salt buildup but our sandy soils usually don't hold on to much so we'll see. Again so far so good.

The difference between regular Thrips and Chili Thrips is that regular Thrips stop at the bloom where Chili Thrips attack the bloom and new growth (I swear I've seen damage to older growth also, but no one believes it). Chili Thrips are extremely prolific and can do in a garden in no time flat.

I've seen them do damage to the stems too. The literally stop the rose from growing at all.

Yes, I've seen that as well. I've lost whole plants to chilli thrips before.

Im showing some signs of Chili Thrips here in inland SoCal on my Graham Thomas, iceberg and Climbing Eden :(

Denise, we need to friend each other on FB. I've been meaning to PM in response to your text message about the Cool Roses sale trip but a dissertation via text message is a task I haven't had the time for, lol.

I find that the Chili Thrips main hindrance to a rose bush is its introduction of fungal infection. It's bad enough it stunts new growth, but when the damage they cause creates opens up the plant to further damage it turns lethal.

Haku, I've found Iceberg usually strong enough to weather the damage caused by Chili Thrips. Hopefully they don't spread too much.

This winter I sprayed twice with horticultural oil and then waited to see any small sign of them. Then I trimmed off the damage and sprayed with spinosad. So far so good. I no longer have roses that are bigger than I can spray. I have heard that if you use systemics as the growers do, then spray spinosad as well so the thrips dont get immune to the systemic. The critters reproduce every 13 days and insert the eggs into the plant tissue. You CANT wash them off and a huge population develops quickly. They also overwinter in warm areas and that's why I used dormant spray oil. Supposedly, there is a way to interrupt the lifecycle in winter but I am still trying to find out what that is. Chilli Thrips are the worst :(

Thanks a bunch Kublakan. I had reg thrips bad this year. I may try to do what kittymoonbeam does in the winter to see if it will help next year. Thanks again!!