Well - since my thrip vac didn't work too well, in fact didn't work at all, and I don't like the idea of spraying plants, I have another trick up my sleeve.
Meet my mite army!
(I did take both those pics with my macro lens...sadly no fight image yet!)
The sachets are "amblyline CRS" and contain bran with a feed (a smaller harmless mite) along with eggs and hatchlings of the mite army - specifically amblyseius cucumeris. Officially the sachets are supposed to "dispense" 400 mites a week for around 6 weeks. That's an emergence rate of 2.4 per hour, ish. I can see it's higher than that though, right now.
They cost me £17 GBP for 8 sachets, so while not cheap, not that expensive either, and very low effort rate too - just hang them on the plants and wait for the mites.
Seller I bought them off here in the UK advises one per plant - but I'm doing about 1 per 4 plants as my plants are small and they look like a plague of mites! It's quite unnerving watching them pour out of the hole in the tops of the white bags like some horror film. I am sure I'll wake up covered in them one of these days! All this inside the house. Best not to think about it
By the time they arrived the thrips had pretty much taken over - I had something like 50 thrips on some plants, one plant had a LOT more so had to be disposed off, it was dropping leaves.
Anyway - It's already 48 hours since I hung the sachets and it panned out like this:
12 hours in: a lot of mites dead and dying upside down on the aluminium foil mulches (this is an anti thrip measure btw!) - I think the mites are falling off the leaves. Bit of research later, turned off the fan and sprayed a bit of water from a fine mister, apparently this helps them hang on
24 hours in: no more mites seem to be falling off. Mites are everywhere but thrips are too
48 hours in - now: where have the thrips gone? I've checked every plant and not one in sight! Perhaps they're hiding. Or...perhaps they've been eaten. Time will tell. Still lots of mites on every plant - they are very active!
I have to say this is surprisingly promising - to go from thrips everywhere, to zero thrips or nymph thrips after just 48 hours...!
TBC
Meet my mite army!
(I did take both those pics with my macro lens...sadly no fight image yet!)
The sachets are "amblyline CRS" and contain bran with a feed (a smaller harmless mite) along with eggs and hatchlings of the mite army - specifically amblyseius cucumeris. Officially the sachets are supposed to "dispense" 400 mites a week for around 6 weeks. That's an emergence rate of 2.4 per hour, ish. I can see it's higher than that though, right now.
They cost me £17 GBP for 8 sachets, so while not cheap, not that expensive either, and very low effort rate too - just hang them on the plants and wait for the mites.
Seller I bought them off here in the UK advises one per plant - but I'm doing about 1 per 4 plants as my plants are small and they look like a plague of mites! It's quite unnerving watching them pour out of the hole in the tops of the white bags like some horror film. I am sure I'll wake up covered in them one of these days! All this inside the house. Best not to think about it
By the time they arrived the thrips had pretty much taken over - I had something like 50 thrips on some plants, one plant had a LOT more so had to be disposed off, it was dropping leaves.
Anyway - It's already 48 hours since I hung the sachets and it panned out like this:
12 hours in: a lot of mites dead and dying upside down on the aluminium foil mulches (this is an anti thrip measure btw!) - I think the mites are falling off the leaves. Bit of research later, turned off the fan and sprayed a bit of water from a fine mister, apparently this helps them hang on
24 hours in: no more mites seem to be falling off. Mites are everywhere but thrips are too
48 hours in - now: where have the thrips gone? I've checked every plant and not one in sight! Perhaps they're hiding. Or...perhaps they've been eaten. Time will tell. Still lots of mites on every plant - they are very active!
I have to say this is surprisingly promising - to go from thrips everywhere, to zero thrips or nymph thrips after just 48 hours...!
TBC
Ah, but I figure they are moving in on the neighbour's broad mite populations and thus creating a broad mite free barrier around my yard. That's what I tell myself anyway. 
