Just a wild a** guess that he's using the spider mites that are predators of the bad spider mites.

The link below is to a page about these mites, and the commercial site is one in Tennessee where I have bought Japanese Beetle baits.

Neoseiulus fallacis or Amblyseius fallacis (same mite some argument about the genus affiliation.

Biocontrol in Tennessee

Inland Socal here... Im also having a battle with chili thrips... I would love to get my hands on these mites Tom speaks of

I haven't seen any normal rose blooms for the last couple weeks in my area with the exception of some knockouts roses in city landscaping areas where they probably add heavy duty granular insecticides each year to keep them looking pristine.

Oh yes they are especially nasty right now. One strategy that seems to be helping is that I am not pruning or feeding at all. Just plenty of mulch and water. The plants are sitting with heat blasted leaves and hips but make no new growth so there's nothing for the Thrips. I spray with spinosad to kill any waiting to attack new growth. Evelyn shot up a fresh basal cane and was immediately attacked. I don't see major damage elsewhere but they must be around waiting for any new soft growth. It's the first time I've appreciated roses that sit still in summer and don't grow or bloom.

that sounds like a good strategy, actually. do the chilli thrips ever go away once they establish themselves in our warm climate? I know in other areas of Southern California, they started showing up immediately after Hurricane Dolores in July/August 2015. We rarely ever get temperatures that dip low enough to kill them off in the winter. According to http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/41959.pdf "S. dorsalis cannot overwinter in regions where temperature remains below -4°C for five or more days".

There is a Heritage Rose Foundation Conference at the Huntington Sept 30- Oct 2, and on one day there is a tour by the Rose Garden curator. I am going to it, and will definitely find out more about what they are doing re chili thrips, as if they are in So Cal already, they will probably be migrating to No Cal, where I live. Using beneficial insects to battle them sounds great!

Jackie

In my neighborhood, they overwintered ( actually, our cool season isn't a winter ) and became destructive with the first heatwave after the spring bloom. A neighbor and I both sprayed twice before spring with horticultural oil. I waited for thrip damage to show and then sprayed with spinosad. My neighbor used systemic insect poison and never saw anything. She has continued to prune and feed her roses and I stopped feeding, trimming and did not remove hips and let mine slow down and grow hips once I saw thrip activity.

The roses that rebloom faster with no hip removal have to be sprayed periodically. As I understand it, if you let populations build up, the next year is so much worse. If it was cooler, I would be using horticultural oil as well to fight them.

Awesome Jackie! Maybe you get Tom to disclose where he's getting the predatory mites from. :)

I intend to try, and if I find out I will post the info on here.

Jackie

I would be interested in knowing as well. I am in N E FL and I am surprised that chili thrips havent showed up here yet. They are rampant in S FL and we are getting into the 100F here in the summers now and having warmer winters without much frost so I know they are coming lol.

One thing I've noticed that loves to eat the regular thrips is our native little green tree frogs. As soon as thrips show up in the spring, I will soon see the little frogs start hanging out in the flower blossoms gobbling up thrips. These frogs are endangered here in FL now due to invasion of the Cuban Tree frogs that gobble up the green tree frogs, native lizards etc.

I wonder if these tree frogs could b used in other places like Calif to control thrips. They do a great job here. I had these frogs in our yard when I lived in Louisiana so hopefully the Cuban tree frogs arent going eat all them up in LA.

Perhaps:

"Amblyseius Swirski Predatory Mite, Amblyseius swirskii is an excellent biological control agent and has been used in controlling tiny pests such as whiteflies, thrips and spider mites that cause a serious damage to many economically important crops grown both in the greenhouses and fields. Effective against the following pests: Asian Citrus Psyllid, Broad mites, russet mites, two spotted spider mite, Western flower thrips, •Chilli thrips, Asian Citrus Psyllid, Greenhouse whitefly, and Tobacco whitefly."

Lots more on these predator mites:

http://www.buglogical.com/spider-mite-predator/

I used ladybugs for aphids this spring and when I got those infected plants from Chambees, I used predatory mites on the affected plants.

It seemed to work, I was in the middle of a trial so I didn't have time to go and use water on the roses 2 times a day. I've been looking to see if the mites have returned and the roses I put the predatory mites on have remained healthy.

So, overall - would recommend. The ladybugs were really amazing - they ate everything and few away. The predatory mites are too small to see, so no idea. I bought a jeweler's loop but still, no idea.

Anyone has any update as to the predatory mites working to kill chili thrips at the Huntington Rose Garden?

Didn't work so well. They started a spraying program to protect the plants this year.

The best thing i have done is to let hips form and with the roses resting, I don't see damage. If a new cane shoots up I have to spray that or roses like Marie pavie that keep going, I have to spray. I have some Charles lawson that runs roots underground so I don't water it. It goes dormant sort of in summer and stops growing after spring. I never see any thrips on it. How it lives without water is a mystery. If I prune for fall, I know ill have to spray everything. Now i just spray new buds and new canes.

Huntington garden looks fantastic as always.