What kind of insect causes this?

AndyW said:
A little tip on pictures with a phone: with my phone, I can get better quality by taking the pic further back and zooming in later vs taking it up close. Much better quality and focus that way for me.

​That is optically impossible. Further away and your pixels and CCD noise will take up more solid angles, always decreasing the information you produce in the photo. Zoom afterwards can't increase the information at all, only increase the apparent sizes on your retina. The only thing it can help with is if your phone can't focus on that distance (or if you have problems holding it still enough/at the right distance). The focus dynamics do change with an external lens but you can also clearly see that the depth of field is extremely narrow in my pictures. This is a small scale optic problem.

​Just my tip: Take pictures as close as you can get focus, as long as you can get it sharp and have appropriate lighting (especially important for cell phone CCDs). Anything else will increase the noise per surface level detail from what your camera is capable of resolving, decreasing the information in the picture of the same sized details. Can't get focus/light/hold it still? Increase distance until you can.
 
SwedishGhost said:

​That is optically impossible. Further away and your pixels and CCD noise will take up more solid angles, always decreasing the information you produce in the photo. Zoom afterwards can't increase the information at all, only increase the apparent sizes on your retina. The only thing it can help with is if your phone can't focus on that distance (or if you have problems holding it still enough/at the right distance). The focus dynamics do change with an external lens but you can also clearly see that the depth of field is extremely narrow in my pictures. This is a small scale optic problem.

​Just my tip: Take pictures as close as you can get focus, as long as you can get it sharp and have appropriate lighting (especially important for cell phone CCDs). Anything else will increase the noise per surface level detail from what your camera is capable of resolving, decreasing the information in the picture of the same sized details. Can't get focus/light/hold it still? Increase distance until you can.
Oh, you're right. I could've sworn that I mentioned focus as the main variable there. Thanks for the correction!
 
Just an update on this for anyone interested. I ended up buying a spinosad based spray (captain jacks deadbug brew specifically, but monterys garden insect spray is the same). After 3 applications 4 days apart each application, no more thrips. I looked extensively and can't find a single thrip anymore
 
SwedishGhost said:

​Yeah. They're weird little bastards. I mean they obviously like to feed on old leaves. I usually find the largest structural damage there (silvery/bronze scraping scares in huge irregular blobs on the underside of leaves). However, once you have an infestation they seem to target the new shoots like it's the most delicious buffet. So what ends up happening is that all new growth comes out all weird and damaged while the old leaves slowly succumbs, it can quickly spiral into a critical condition for your plant since it can't really save itself.

​As I said though, insecticidal soap is your best friend. Just use true soap and not dishwashing liquid or something else strongly detergent. Check my posting history on some information on this. E.g. here and the post I refer. 1 % is enough as long as you make sure to actually wet everything thoroughly and let them dry slowly, preferably somewhere where you have 90% humidity. High enough humidity and you could probably get away with 0.25 % if your water isn't that hard. But do at least 1 % since phytotoxicity should be practically non-existent as long as you use a long-chained pure-fatty-acid SOAP (I've even wet plants 2 cm out of the grounds with no problems). Don't take any chances.
 
If the leaves start drying before you've moved them, re-spray them. I can't emphasize the "let 'em dry slowly"-recommendation enough; Soap truly only kills via suffocation (hugely increased wetness of the water in combination with their passive breathing tubes) but thrips can survive "holding their breath" for a little while. Try to start the spray session of each plant by high pressure to wash them off as well and then turn to a fine mist to cover everything. Then you increase your chances of removing the largest amount of the reproductive population possible. Oh, this probable goes without saying but COVER EVERYTHING. On top, under leaves, inside flowers, between buds and stems, along the woody stem, lightly mist the top soil, wash off the pot, etc. Everything. Don't let them camp out and re-colonize the next day.

​No, sand won't do shit I'm afraid. Screw the fungus gnats. They seldom do any real damage (unless your soil is always soggy). Just water more appropriately and put up some yellow sticky paper to catch 'em. Thrips is a real threat on the other hand. Not immediately but if you neglect the plants they will become quite stunned, might get viruses and could even die. Focus on the thrips.

​But don't worry. You can get this under control. You just need to be hypervigilant and avoid pro-crastinating "spray days" for a while. May your thrips not rest in any peace whatsoever.
what is the active ingredient in insecticide soap? can i use a bath soap!

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thoms said:
what is the active ingredient in insecticide soap? can i use a bath soap!

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This answer got long but I hope it's of use to someone who searches for the magic of soap death (to aphids, thrips and related scum).
 
Believe it or not but it's actually... soap! Soap from (i.e. salts of) long-chained fatty acids. Most likely mechanism of action is decreasing surface tension to a degree which suffocates the little beasts in their little breathing tubes.
 
But you don't want dish soap. Why? Because it's not a soap! Not a true soap, that is. It contains detergents, yes, but not from long-chained fatty acids. It's much more harsh, small molecules. This means a much higher risk of phytotoxic reactions. You don't want that.
 
In Sweden we have a super popular thick organic general soap product for cleaning indoors (not doing dishes) called Grumme såpa. If one were to check the declaration of contents, one finds potassium tallate as the main ingredient (the soap of the solution). This product is almost perfect for insecticidal usage. Why? Well, "tallate" is just referring to fatty acids from "tall oil", i.e. oil from pine. What does the crude product contain? Quoting Wikipedia:
 
Normally crude tall oil contains rosins (which contains resin acids (mainly abietic acid and its isomers), fatty acids (mainly palmitic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid) and fatty alcohols, unsaponifiable sterols (5-10%), some sterols, and other alkyl hydrocarbon derivates.
 
That's just about as perfect as it can get since those fatty acids have 16, 18 and 18 carbon units each. That's where you ideally want to be, though down to 12-15 wouldn't necessarily be dangerous either (but avoid bar soaps or soaps for your hands/body since they're generally going to be way shorter/contain detergents or other weird additives). So try to find something similar. Simple solutions of salts (potassium/sodium doesn't really matter, but potassium might be preferable to not increase sodium contents in soil if you can choose) of long-chained fatty acids. You can definitely accept some perfume or coloring (shouldn't matter), but definitely try to avoid detergents if possible.
 
Oh, and use 1-2%. >2% shouldn't really increase effectiveness unless you're drying the leaves way to fast (you want slow drying in high humidity directly after soaping). <1% and you might need very high humidity for a long time to not loose effectiveness. Can't get something perfect? You could try dish soap (marketed as "gentle" in some way), but be extremely careful and try a test area first. If you get any chlorosis, be wary. But you must have simple cleaning soaps where you live, of some variety.
 
I can vouch for dish detergent being too harsh on plants. Lost a Tabasco plant last winter by spraying it with Dawn dish soap trying to kill of some cream colored mite looking bugs. The mixture killed the bugs but within a couple of days all the leaves started to curl up and drop. The plant would bud up more leaves and the bugs would do their thing. It took maybe 3 treatments fully kill my plant.


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whether this is due to aphids or over dose of pesticide
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