Uuugh now what is this. Something else munching on my plants. Mites?

[patrick]

What a pain in the butt! So hard to tell the difference between bug and fungal damage. Glad you were finally able to ID the problem. Like SS said, nuke them SOB's.

 

[P. Dreadie]

Dang !! What a photo !! When I grew African Violets thrips were a bloom killer and a big pain . I'd see them when the lights first came on buzzing around the flowers but they were so tiny I never knew what they really looked like. Just saw a crazy posse of little thin shites running everywhere fast !

With AV's we'd spray some paper towels with a bug killer , put them a large container , put the plant on top and seal it. It whacked them . With AV's you didn't want to spray the plants. A little off topic ... sorry

Peace & kill them !!
P. Dreadie

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Hi guys, after much MUCH looking online, it looks very VERY much like damage from something called Thrips...right down to the silvery or metallic sheen that I have on the bottom side.

Now to see what the best way is to get rid of thrips.

The Safer's Soap you have will kill off the thrips, but you'll need to spray your plants 2 or 3 times per week since it has no residual effect (once it's dried it's useless). If you want to use something that requires less frequent spraying, permethrin will last 1 or 2 weeks before you need to apply again. Spinosad is another option that has a residual effect and won't harm beneficial insects. Good luck

 

[orrevs]

I have thrips on some of my plants to i used soap today and gave them a cold shower before, i think i will give them that dose until i dont see anyone left!! Pain in the ass.
Also they manged to get on a plant i have in a hydro system, if i spray it. It will be fine? They lay egg in the dirt or? ;(

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Here's some NFO

The life cycle of a thrip is unique and fast. Eggs are laid on plant tissue and hatching young will immediately begin to feed on any part of the plant which presents sap and vital fluids containing nutrition. After a week or so, these larva will have passed through two stages having eaten all the time. Once the third stage begins eating will stop and at this stage some may even develop wings, fly off or simply crawl down into leaf litter and mulch to pupate. It is probably the hatching of the pupa which are most responsible for the cases involving biting thrips. The fourth stage, the pupa, is where they turn into fully mature adults ready to mate and reproduce. Females have the unique ability to lay eggs which will prosper whether they mated with a male or not. In general, eggs produced from fertile females will yield offspring of either sex; eggs generated by females which could not find males will produce nothing but males. This biased result insures the local population gets a good balance for the future since thrips develop so quickly. This whole process from egg to adult can happen in as little as two weeks depending on the species and the local environment. For this reason it is important to realize just how quickly a few can turn into a few thousand and further explains why it is all important to head off these developing colonies and populations when first found.