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Help! Massive thrip damage!

Peptacular

Peptacular

I went out of town for less than a week and when I came back I had silver spots everywhere on my tomato and cucumber leaves! Couldnt find any live ones but their frass is everywhere on the silvered leaves. Only a couple pepper leaves affected but I want to nip this in the bud, as it were.

Any quick, sure fire to get rid of them? I think I'm going to order sinosad, anything I can do until then?

As a bonus I've started getting powdery mildew on the leaves they've attacked :( going to go spray copper solution later tonight.
 
Well the lime sulfur spray I found was 20 dollars after shipping unless I want to go out searching at brick and mortar stores. I was going to go with the sinosad because its 20 with free shipping and I already have copper concentrate.

Will diatomaceous earth do anything or just lime do anything? i have both on hand, I also have some old sevin but don't want to use that because I've been organic so far. I've heard you can kill and disperse thrips with a blast from a hose but I don't want to encourage the mildew. I'm hoping if I spray heavily (from a pump sprayer) with real dilute copper solution it might knock off and drown most of them.

I don't think this garden will be paying for itself after this lol. But ideally I can use anything I buy next year.
Now I'm thinking I have fungus gnats because I saw black mosquito like flies hovering near the areas with powdery mildew. This is turning into my personal hell quick.
 
Tay, get you something with spinosad in it. I got some captain jack's deadbug concentrate early in the year and it is the ONLY thing I've ever had any luck whatsoever with killing thrips. Fuckin thrips, if you want to find the live ones look inside your flowers & inside the tiny brand new leaves that are just barely opening. 
 
They are very small:
 
RODNrTf.jpg
 
Spinosiad will work, however it interferes with the breeding cycle and may take weeks for it to work.
 
Diatomaceous earth probably won't do anything. Thrips are not a soft body insect. Also, they fly.
 
If you want to stay organic, we have had good luck with Organocide. Although the bottle claims it may take a few weeks, it is a contact spray and has been killing our thrips right out of the bottle.
 
If you want to move up to WWIII and bring on the chemical warfare, I would recomend Avid. Do a little Google for 'Avid insecticide'. This product is not cheap but it will bring the pain. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
 
Thrips will not bother fruit that has already set, so you won't lose what you may already have.
 
Good luck. We primarily raise Dahlias and have been battling the little bastards for years. You never really get rid of them but you can slow them down.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone! Ordered 32oz of spinosad concentrate. Ill try the other recommendations if this fails, god forbid.
 
Hi Tay,
   I just picked up a bottle of Cap't Jack's to try on Squash Bugs and Asian Garden Beetles. I'll stay tuned to see how it works on Thrips too. Cheers!
 
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