Thrips

Quite common in outdoor and greenhouse grows, less so in indoor grows, thrips can weaken your plant and reduce the quality and quantity of your harvest. Keep reading to learn how to get rid of them.

What are Thrips?

Thrips are winged insects that belong to the family of the Thysanopteras. These insects are known for having little frills on their wings. There are different types of species that are fond of attacking cannabis plants, such as Frankliniella Occidentalis and Thrips Tabaci.

Thrips won’t devour your plants, but they will reduce the quality and quantity of your flowers, weaking the plant by:

• Damaging their leaves.
• Generating negative stress.
• Slowing growth.
• Can be a bath for viruses and illness to access your plants.

How to Identify Thrips

Thrips are easy to spot. If you shake your plant you’ll be able to see them jumping or flying from one plant to another. They tend to be up top, along the upper leaves, and they’re 1 – 6mm in size. They can be yellow, white, grey or brown.

They’re longer than flies, and they’re different from white flies and aphids in that they don’t produce molasses, which is a substance secreted by some species that can attract ants. Another main difference is that thrips tend to chow down on the edges of the leaves rather than the middle.

Keep in mind that females can lay between 30 and 300 eggs, so you would do well to prevent them from getting their wings on your plants.

How to Prevent Thrips

The first step towards a healthy plant is prevention.

• Do not overfertilize your plants; excess nitrogen can attract thrips.
• Use yellow and blue sticky traps in order to trap flying insects. Plus, they can also help you to identify them once found.
• Products such as CannaCure, Protect or Leaf Coat can be used to create a protective layer around your plants’ leaves; highly useful against thrip infestations.
• Make sure to check your leaves for insect bites. Remember that thrip bites are close to the edges of the leaves.
• In order to increase plant resistance, use products rich in silicone like Silicate, Rhino Skin or Pro Silicate, which strengthen your plants's leaves.
• We recommend using products which increase natural defenses and get rid of stress, such as Regulator or Alg-a-Mic. These products strengthen your plants and reduces the impact of toxins and virus that insects can transmit.

How to Get Rid of Thrips

If you've detected a thrip infestation in your cannabis plants, the next step is to fight it off. In order to get rid of it, we recommend using:

• Spruzit: a bio insecticide made using pyrethrin. Spruzit acts via contact and degrades rapidly under the sun. It also contains rapeseed oil which asphyxiates insect eggs.
• Alternate Spruzit with Mobet, an insect made using insecticidal soap which is efficient at eliminating thrips.

When it comes to handling insecticides, we recommend:

• Reading the instructions and tags on the products carefully.
• Respecting the safety indications and periods.
• If you have any questions get in touch with our team.

At La Huerta Grow Shop we believe in protecting cannabis plants organically and respecting the environment.