Updated at: 20-05-2022 - By: Sienna Lewis

So, you’ve got thrips in your home. Also, you must remove them.

That’s a pain in the neck. Thrips can do serious damage to your crops.

Thank goodness you came across this comprehensive guide.

You’ll discover everything you need to know in this detailed guide:

  • Damage caused by thrips to your house
  • How to get rid of thrips organically
  • Plants that have been infested by thrips
  • Keep thrips away from your house and garden with these tips.
  • Repelling agents for thrips in nature
  • And there’s more!

Exterminate, repel, and control thrips with the information in this handbook.

Please feel free to save this page to your favorites so you can quickly return to it.

14 Natural Ways to Get Rid of Thrips on Plants - Dre Campbell Farm

Is that correct? The thrips must be exterminated from your home!

This page was last updated on December 30th, 2019.

What’s a thrip?

There are thrips in greenhouses and gardens all over the world.

They are harmful to plants and can leave them damaged, pallid, jagged, or even splotchy in their wake. Thrips are thought to number around 6,000 different species in the world.

As a result of their small size, the majority of individuals will likely overlook them.

To see them without a magnifier, they’re barely a little over half an inch long. In addition, they are extremely nimble and swift. In addition, they have the ability to fly and leap, making them excellent escape artists.

It is possible for thrips to attack both indoor and outdoor plants. These pests attack plants in your garden as well as in a greenhouse. Plants in the home can also be damaged by them.

It is common knowledge that Thrips eat in big groups and are communal feeders, which means that these pests can swiftly consume an entire plant.

Other names

In addition to thrips, other names for these pests include thunderbugs, stormflies, thunderblights, stormbugs, corn lice, thunderflies, and stormflies.

What do thrips look like?

Tiny feathered wings and serpentine bodies are the distinguishing features of a thrips.

They’re able to fly and often hang around plants outdoors in the garden.

They can fly and are frequently found in gardens where they cling to plants.

They’re able to fly and are frequently found in gardens, where they like to congregate around flowers and plants.

While flying, they frequently perch on the leaves of plants in your yard.

In the event that you manage to catch one, you can study its slim body and two wings on the back for yourself.

A needle is released into the plant by their piercing mouthparts in order to suck and collect nutrients from it. For their own use, they suck the sap and nutrients out of the tree trunk.

It is considered a nuisance to plants since thrips can cause a lot of harm and ultimately kill the plant.

They can deplete a plant’s nutritional reserves in a short period of time because of their sheer numbers.

When thrips are just a few days old, they don’t have wings and are only yellow in color.

What are thrips attracted to?

Thrips devour a wide variety of garden plants, including flowers and vegetables.

Carrots, squash, beans, gladioli, flowers, and more are all part of their diet. The hues blue, yellow, orange, and white also seem to appeal to them.

Because of this, plants that produce flowers in these colors may be more susceptible to thrips. They don’t discriminate when it comes to what they consume, and they’ll eat just about anything.

There isn’t a specific plant that they dislike because they are herbivores.

They’re drawn to plant sap and nutrients, which is why they are so prevalent in the wild. They use a piercing mouthpiece to suck the sap out of the tree.

Flowering plants like ficus, roses, orchids and dandelions, as well as houseplants, cacti and succulents are among their favorites.

It’s not just meat and fish that they consume; they also enjoy a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Thrip life cycle

It is quite easy for thrips to reproduce.

Prior to the winter, adult thrips mate. The eggs are then laid by the females. A single clutch can produce up to 80 eggs at a time.

Thrip eggs

The eggs of the female thrips are inserted into the stems or blossoms by the females themselves.

Thrip nymphs are born shortly after the eggs hatch in the spring.

Plant sap and nutrients are their primary source of nutrition, and they slowly transform throughout two molts.

Thrips in the soil

Thrips pupate in the dirt after falling from the plant. On the soil surface, you’ll notice larvae clustered around the plant stem at this stage. Thrip larvae are what you see here.

Nymph to adult

After the larvae turn into adults, they fly out of the soil with a complete wingspan. It takes about 16 days for the whole process of an egg to adult thrip, so they can multiply quickly.

As soon as the larvae mature into adults, they emerge from the ground with a full wingspan. Egg to adult thrip development takes 16 days, therefore they can reproduce swiftly.

Do thrips lay eggs in soil?

After the larvae mature into adults, they emerge from the dirt with a full wingspan. The entire egg-to-adult thrip life cycle takes 16 days, so these critters can quickly reproduce.

When the larvae mature into adults, they emerge from the soil with full wingspan. The entire egg-to-adult thrip life cycle takes 16 days, thus they can reproduce swiftly.

Trichophages may appear to lay eggs in the soil because adults fly out of the soil once they’ve matured. However, the larvae really fell to the ground from the plant.

Where do thrips live?

Outdoor plants often have thrips. They favor sap-producing plants that are in full bloom.

Nevertheless, it’s likely that you, your pets, your children, or your clothes carried the thrip into your house. Also, a trip can infect your house.

It only takes a few of them for them to start reproducing and growing in numbers. This causes these tiny black insects to materialize out of nowhere.

The larvae of thrips can be found crawling on the surface of the soil near plants both indoors and outdoors. Look for larvae on the soil surface if you have thrips in your houseplants.

If the soil is black, they should be easily visible.

Your houseplants will be eaten by thrips if they make it inside your home. Herbivores devour plant materials, therefore your fruits and vegetables may be a food source for them as well.

Can thrips infest your home?

As long as thrips manage to come into your home, you’ll have an infestation.

The first thing they’ll do after making their way into your home is pick an appropriate houseplant to eat and raise their young. They’ll feed off your houseplants’ nutrients and multiply.

The larvae crawl on the soil and eventually become adults, which will repeat the cycle once they breed again.

Once the eggs hatch, the larvae crawl through the earth, eventually maturing into adults, who then reproduce to begin the cycle all over again.

Black thrips in the house

After a period of time, the larvae burrow into the soil, where they will eventually mature into adults, which will then reproduce.

Once the eggs hatch, the larvae move through the earth, eventually maturing into adults who can reproduce.

You can begin by inspecting your own indoor plants for thrips.

What part of the plant to do they attack?

Thrips attack all parts of the plant, although the pollen, flowers, leaves, buds, fruits, stems, and twigs are the most commonly targeted sections of the plant by thrips.

These insects are phytophages, which implies that they only eat plants by focusing on a few specific components of the plant.

What does thrip damage look like?

Thrip-infested plants often display the following symptoms:

  • Wilted leaves are seen here.
  • wilted or brown leaves
  • Branches with holes in them
  • An abundance of soil-dwelling larvae
  • Plant stems that have been damaged
  • Thrips that can be seen but flee when you get close.

Are thrips bad?

Wilted and underdeveloped tomatoes can be caused by the spread of the wilt virus in tomato plants by thrips.

It’s also possible for them to spread the impatiens spot virus, which causes dead spots to appear on the plants.

Additionally, they’ll eat your fruits, vegetables, and flowers. You’ll notice a lot of them because they’re a contagious pest.

Because there are so many thrips at once, they are able to quickly devastate and kill your plants.

How to get rid of thrips naturally | HappySprout

How to get rid of thrips inside the house

Thrips can be eradicated organically or naturally using a variety of home remedies.

We’ll go through some of the best home remedies below. If it doesn’t work, you might want to think about hiring a specialist to deal with the bugs for you.

Here are some of the best ways to get rid of thrips.

Will soapy water kill thrips?

In this article, we’ll look at the best methods for getting rid of thrips.

All you need is a cup of water and a few drops of dish soap. Spray the thrips with the solution immediately from a spray bottle.

Because they’re so little, you’ll need to spray the entire plant to ensure that you catch them.

The dish soap should be tested on a tiny area of the plant before applying it to the entire plant.

Some plants are particularly vulnerable to insecticides, so wait two days before inspecting for damage. Spray the entire thing if the plant is healthy. Make adjustments to the DIY pesticide if you notice plant damage, such as diluting it with more water and testing it again. Thrips die from contact with the soap.

For a month, reapply every other day until the thrips are no longer an issue. Because thrips are constantly reproducing, this may take some time.

Can I use Dawn to make insecticidal soap?

DIY insect soap can be made with Dawn or any other dish detergent.

Neem oil

The essential oil known as “need oil” has been shown to be highly efficient against a variety of pests. Thrips are killed with neem, which may be purchased in apothecaries.

One to two drops per gallon is all you need. To get rid of the black flies, spray the solution into a spray bottle. Right away, they’ll be wiped out.

Neem can be toxic to some plants, so it’s important to examine a small leaf first.

Neem should not be used in direct sunlight, as this can cause damage to the plant. Avoid applying neem oil throughout the day if you’re using it outside. Keep it out of direct sunlight if you’re using it indoors.

After spraying your plants with neem, you should also rinse them with water. Take the plant under the hose and shower it for about 20 minutes after that to remove the neem oil and thrips. This is necessary in order to keep out other pests that feed on dead bugs.

Water

Thrips can be removed from your houseplants using water. Take the plants outside and use a forceful hose to wash them down.

The plant will be hydrated and the thrips will be flushed out by the water. Thrips can be washed away by spraying your plants with an air-powered nozzle.

They’ll be drenched to death and then hosed down. You’ll need to spray your plants on a regular basis until the thrips are gone.

Diatomaceous earth

thrips can be dehydrated and eventually killed by this method.

Some can be sprinkled on top of the plant’s soil to help it absorb the fertilizer. If the DE comes into contact with a thrip’s exoskeleton, it will become dehydrated.

Make a ring around the plant stem and sprinkle it around the oil’s circumference.

In this way, the exoskeleton of any thrip that consumes the plant while crossing the DE will be coated in DE.

Small amounts of diatomaceous earth, which can be obtained at any major retailer, are quite safe to use.

Keep children and pets away from it because it can cause rashes and other skin irritations. When working with DE, always use gloves. In addition, wear a face mask and other safety gear.

Sticky traps

Thrips can be caught at home using sticky traps that can be purchased or made at home.

Thrips become stuck and perish when they walk on them because they’re wrapped around plant stems or leaves. Traps can be set up quickly and are safe for plants.

Thrips are drawn to blue, therefore use blue sticky traps. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully.

Stick sticky traps around your houseplants to catch thrips in your home.

Use pyrethrin

Pyrethrin is a commercially marketed short-term insecticide. It is available in a wide range of flavors.

In most bug sprays, pyrethrin is an active ingredient, and you’re not purchasing it separately. Use an organic or all-natural spray as instructed.

Insecticide pyrethrin is a powerful weapon against the thrips in your home.

Attract natural thrip predators

If you have an infestation of thrips, some bugs that eat thrips can help you get rid of them.

When it comes to this issue, there are two ways to approach it.

If you have thrips outdoors

In order to get rid of thrips in your yard, try attracting predators that eat them.

What’s the best way to go about it? You may learn more about the native species in your area and how to encourage them to populate your yard by doing research on them.

Pirate bugs, ladybugs, and lacewings are the most prevalent bugs in the United States that prey on thrips.

In order to keep the thrip population under control, you should be able to attract one of these popular beneficial insects to your yard.

If you have thrips indoors

Mini greenhouses for houseplants are available for purchase.

When you put the plant in the small greenhouse, you can release a bug to help “clean up” the thrip infestation.

There must be a better way to explain this. Simple. Bulk purchases of ladybugs, lacewings, and pirate bugs are commonplace.

You put your houseplant that has thrips into the greenhouse. Then you release the predators into the same container contained environment.

You take your thrips-infested houseplant to the greenhouse. After that, predators are released into the same container-contained environment that they were kept in.

Thrips in the pool

Getting rid of thrips in your swimming pool might be a challenge. In addition, they are known to bite, which implies that if you go swimming, you may get bitten.

You may notice thrips on your pool steps or sun shelf, as well as along the pool’s edge and perimeter.

Fly tape is the first step in getting rid of them. Infested regions should be covered in the blue sticky traps.

As a natural thrips deterrent, spray the area with neem oil. Thrips emerge from the dirt or rain after they have emerged from the soil.

Your pool will be full of them in no time.

Keep in mind that thrips are often only around for a short time before disappearing. There are natural repellents, traps, and predators that you can utilize till they depart.

You can also use a cloth to remove them. Wipe them down with a rag sprayed with rubbing alcohol. Thrips are killed by the alcohol. Keep your hands and clothing protected from thrips bites by wearing gloves and long sleeves.

Control thrips organically

There are a few things you may do if you want to get rid of thrips naturally.

Use essential oils

You may produce your own thrip killer at home by mixing a gallon of water with 1-2 drops of essential oil, which is common among organic essential oils.

To combat thrips, neem and peppermint oil appear to be the most effective options. Fill a spray bottle halfway with the solution you’ve just made.

Afterwards, spray it directly on the thrip-infested plants. It’s supposed to be poisonous to them, but it also acts as a natural repellant.

Don’t be scared to apply extra oil droplets to fine-tune the oil’s concentration. As with any oil, be cautious and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Certain oils may cause allergic reactions in some people and animals. Do your homework at all times.

Use sticky traps

Thrips can be caught with organic sticky traps, which use only organic insecticides. As soon as the thrip touches down on the trap, it is unable to escape.

Unless the trap is of low quality, there is no risk that the thrips will pass chemical residues to your plants.

When in doubt, go with a sticky trap made entirely of natural or organic materials.

Manual removal

Organic thrips control is possible utilizing a portable vacuum as well as the other methods.

To get rid of them, simply suction them up and reverse the vacuum.

To get rid of them, you’ll need to put them in a rubbing alcohol-filled bottle or pail.

Because typical vacuums lack a reverse function, a shop vac is your best bet.

Use ladybugs or lacewings

These bugs can be used to devour the thrips and help control the problem naturally.

Ladybugs, a helpful bug, can be purchased in bulk for a low price. Lacewings and pirate bugs are more options.

Thrips on plants

You can use any of the methods listed above to get rid of thrips organically if you have them on your plants.

Monstera

Thrips are prevalent on monstera.

Thrips can be killed with a mixture of neem oil and other natural ingredients. Using 1-2 drops of neem oil per gallon of water, use the spray every other day.

Neem oil might burn your plant, so be sure to thoroughly rinse it after use. You’ll need to keep doing this until the thrips have all vanished.

If you don’t remove the dead thrips after each use of a pesticide, you could attract other insects.

As an alternative, you can also use a small portable vacuum to remove them.

Make a thorough cleaning of your plant and the surrounding area if thrips are present. This will assist reduce the population by checking places such under plants, around windows, on worktops, etc.

Thrip larvae can be dehydrated by sprinkling DE over them. Spray the soil surrounding the plant with a tiny amount of product.

Set it around the monstera stem at its base to create a ring. As a result, any thrip larvae will be forced to pass through the DE, where they will be killed.

Orchids

Thrips can also be seen on orchids.

As with any other plant, the process is the same. Starting with neem oil, you can begin the procedure by manufacturing your own spray (see above section “how to get rid of thrips naturally” to acquire advice).

Make sure to clean the plant after you use the spray. The plant needs to be washed. If you leave thrips on it, you’ll invite additional bugs to eat the dead thrips, therefore it’s imperative that you remove them.

Remove the plant using a vacuum, and then sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the stem before digging it out by hand.

Thrip repellents

There are a few ways to keep thrips away from your plants. Using a commercial product, such as a DEET bracelet, is the simplest method.

DEET can be dangerous if taken for an extended period of time, so this should only be used on an emergency basis.

If you’re going to be hiking or camping in an area where thrips are a problem, consider using a DEET repellent or spray. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully.

Thrips can also benefit from broad-spectrum insecticides. If you can, use a natural or organic repellant instead of a conventional one.

Further reading

The following are some useful resources:

  • Thrips | Wikipedia – Simple English
  • Garlic and Onion Thrips – UCANR
  • Oxford’s Onion Thieves

Signs of thrips on houseplants

Discolored leaves (brown, grayish, sometimes yellowish) and deformed leaves are telltale signs of thrips infestation on houseplants. To narrow down the problem, check for damage that resembles pest damage, but you can’t discover any pests.

304 Thrips Photos - Free & Royalty-Free Stock Photos from Dreamstime

Thrips are tiny and fast-moving, so you may miss them if you don’t keep an eye out. However, injured areas may have little black patches the size of a pin’s head. Thrips excrement. Yes, they eat your plant and then leave their excrement as a token of their gratitude for the food they obtained.

On the undersides of the leaves of my monstera, I noticed some yellowish discolouration and black dots. Small brown spots appeared on the plant’s stems where the leaves meet the stalks, and I detected some somewhat damaged new growth.

As soon as I noticed this, I went to inspect the plant and discovered my first small tiny crawler. The thrips bounced away when I tried to poke them! They have wings, but they’re terrible at flying. When I started loosing my sanity, I’m hoping that I can save some of that for you.

How to get rid of thrips inside on houseplants: My monstera deliciosa

My action plan kicked into high gear as soon as I was confident that my monstera plant was infested with thrips. I’ll go over all of the measures I took to isolate and treat the plant, including what worked and what didn’t.

The first step: Isolate the plant

There is a good chance that thrips will spread and reproduce. The first step I took was to create an isolation chamber to hold my monstera plants. We don’t have a huge house, so a large plant that receives adequate light is out of the question.

Because of this, I moved it to the opposite side of the room. The fact that thrips aren’t very good fliers made me feel comfortable with this. Even if I had the option of moving it into a completely isolated room, I wouldn’t have done it.

Next step: Inspect other plants

To see if the thrips had spread, I examined all of the plants that had been near my monstera. I’ve got a lot of plants, and many of them are close together, so I was starting to freak out. After inspecting all of the plants in my garden for signs of damage, I decided to treat those that were near the monstera.

There were quite a few of these in the area. Instead than risking it, I opted to treat them all instead. I had no concerns that the treatments would be harmful to the plants. An infestation was the main concern for me at the time. As a result, I began by experimenting with neem oil.

Begin treatment using neem oil

The neem oil has an unpleasant odor, so I try to use it only in settings that are well-ventilated, such as outdoors, whenever possible. Sometimes I even wear a mask, which I believe everyone should have in their home nowadays. To begin, I doused my monstera from head to toe with a hose. Including the leaf’s underside. For as long as it took for the entire thing to drip. Two weeks in a row I did this.

Because I had to bring my monstera outside and fill my tub with smaller plants, this was a pain, but it was the quickest and most efficient method. Every day, I checked on my plants. Some time later, I observed the poops stains and eventually, some adults of thrips. Damnit!

Neem oil may be helpful if you have a thrips infection that is still in its early stages. This is due to the fact that it smothers mature thrips and then adds a repellent to your leaves later on. Neem oil by itself, on the other hand, is unlikely to be sufficient.

Remember how thrips fall to the ground when they are ready to become full-fledged adults? Those must be addressed as well. There were conflicting reports about the effectiveness of neem in reducing adult thrips, so I decided to try something else. My rhaphidophora tetrasperma had an adult on it, therefore it was time for battle.

Next up: Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew spray and spinosad

Besides the name, spinosad’s active ingredient gave me optimism (.001 percent in the ready-to-use concentrate). Natural Spinosad is derived from soil bacteria. When used as a topical spray, it is an excellent pesticide. When insects eat it or merely touch it, it works after a few days.

The tops and bottoms of my monstera’s leaves were sprayed until they were dripping with a ready-to-use dead insect brew spray that I purchased from Home Depot. Due to the ineffectiveness of neem oil, I also decided to treat every plant within a few feet of the monstera with the same solution. I had no choice but to purchase a new bottle.

Even though I was optimistic, I realized that the extended thrips lifecycle necessitated more aggressive action. Because of this, I kept spraying my plants with a dead bug brew once a week, either outside or in my tub. After that, I descended into the soil’s depths…

Systemic granules for long-term protection using imidacloprid

I decided to apply Bonide systemic houseplant insect control granules for plants that I had either observed thrips on or had any damage. To be on the safe side The systemic control granules are great since they protect your plants for up to two months. Imidacloprid is the primary component.

It’s best to apply this insecticide to the top one to two inches of soil, depending on how big your pot and plant are. Whenever you water the plant, the imidacloprid is released into the soil and the plant’s root systems. As a result, the plant ingests and distributes it throughout its structure.

Insects that try to consume parts of your plant will be greatly harmed by this. It finally kills them by damaging their nerve systems. I feel like this is really grim…like nerve agent stuff… Keep in mind, though, who we’re up against. THRIPS.