How can thrips be controlled naturally?

When your healthy gloomy plant suddenly starts turning worse, it's frustrating. But, if you scrutinize the plant, you will find little devils. If, unluckily, you are dealing with thrips (as they are common pests found in the garden ), they need to be taken care of straight away.

Thrips feed on plant tissue and prevent their capacity to get nutrients and also known for scratching fruits and leaves. But gladly, you don't necessarily need to use chemicals to eliminate them. They can be controlled by natural pesticides and ingredients as well.

How do thrips look alike?

Thrips are tiny, usually winged insects with either black or straw-colored wings. Thrips are in between yellow to brown or black. Their size varies and usually measures less than 1/25 inch.

Female thrips can lay 80 eggs each. They tend to lay eggs during spring in flowers, leaves or stems. Thrips are widespread insects in flower blossoms or flower plants. They also find indoor plants a great choice to live. Once they find their way to one plant, in no time, all the nearby plants will be infected too.

How to get rid of thrips?

Dust off the thrips with water

Using high-pressure water is the fastest way to eliminate these tiny bugs. One thing you need to consider is to spray the water on both sides of the leaves and stems. Also, if any new blooms exist in your flower plant, clean all the bugs hidden inside it. This process needs to repeat at least twice for a couple of days.

Spray with soap solution.

Spraying the plant with soap solution will create a layer on plant leaves and stems. The bugs will not easily be able to penetrate that layer. And slowly, it will also damage the thrip's skeleton. Add one tablespoon of liquid soap solution and dilute it in water to make the soap spray solution.

Spray this solution on leaves, stems, and soil on alternative days for two weeks. Then spray the solution once or twice a week until the thrips disappear entirely.

Neem oil spray

Neem oil is an excellent bio-pesticide when you want to keep bugs away. A soapy solution can be used as an alternative to adding in nee oil spray. This solution can be used in combo with water.

To make the neem oil spray a few drops of neem oil and a few drops of liquid soap and dilute them with the water. Shake the solution well and fill the spray bottle with it. Spray the solution on alternative days if the infestation level is worst. Otherwise, twice a week will be enough to spray.

Essential oil spray

Orange and cinnamon essential oil are very effective in protecting your plant. Make a spray by diluting these two oils with water. Shake the solution well and fill the spray bottle with it. Use the solution twice a week.

Prevention

Pest management prevention is a must-step that we usually ignore.

Keep the surrounding place clean so there is no place for pests to breed. Cut the damaged part of the plant to make them grow better. Add organic compost to keep the soil healthy. Water the plant regularly.

  • Jan 25, 2023
  • Category: Blogs
  • Comments: 0
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