Flower thrips - a dangerous guest from across the ocean.

Trips - a detachment of insect pests of plants, numbering several thousand species. They differ in their peculiar structure: extremely small sizes (from 0.5 to 1.5 mm), an elongated body, two pairs of narrow fimbriaous wings that are not adapted to long flights.

The birthplace of flower thrips

Flower Californian thrips refers to quarantine pests of ornamental plants, fruit and berry and vegetable crops. This family comes from North America, and a parasite was brought to Europe in the 80s of the last century, when it was discovered in the greenhouses of Holland. At home, this insect is widespread along the western coast of the continent, which explains another popular name - western flower thrips. At present, this pest has spread through all continents due to its vitality and fertility. Discovered in the early 90's in St. Petersburg, the entire territory of Russia, flower thrips yet to capture did not, but in many areas has already been seen.

Features of nutrition and living conditions

The spectrum of the defeat of plants with flower Californian thrips is very wide. The pest is practically omnivorous and damages hundreds of species of floral, fruit and berry and vegetable crops. These are cucumbers, tomato, peppers, cotton, alfalfa, grapes, strawberries, fruit trees, roses, gerberas, carnations, cyclamen. It feeds flower thrips with plant cell juice, which, thanks to a piercing-suction mouthpiece, extracts from stems, leaves and fruits, as well as nectar and pollen in buds. As a result, fruit crops have a lower yield, while decorative ones suffer from an external appearance. On the leaves appear yellow dots due to dead cells and black scattering of excrement, the buds of flowers are not deformed and blossomed, fruits are not tied. The most numerous colonies of the parasite can completely destroy the crop. This insect, moreover, tolerates dangerous for plants virus diseases. Flower thrips harm for a person does not carry - only economic damage. However, this damage can be estimated in millions of rubles!

Floral Californian thrips is an insect that is thermophilic and it feels fine under a temperature regime of 15-30º C. If the temperature falls below 9º C, the parasite does not reproduce and falls into hibernation, and if it rises to 35ºC its development ceases. In the open ground in the temperate climate of the middle zone, the Californian thrips can not overwinter in winter, but is considered a dangerous pest of the enclosed soil. Greenhouses are a particularly fertile environment for the insect, with the most suitable temperature regime for its reproduction, besides being independent of climatic zones. In large greenhouses it is problematic to destroy this parasite completely. At best, it is possible to restrain at a certain level the number of its colonies, and then the damage will not be so significant. The threshold of damage is calculated for each crop separately.

Reproduction

For one year, under suitable conditions, 15-20 generations of the pest can change each other. In just 4-5 days, the population of the flower thrips may double. The life span of one insect is 1.5-2 months. Females pierce different parts of plants and for a month postpones in them on the average about 100, and maximum - about 300 eggs. After a few days, the larva emerges from the egg, which is a small copy of an adult, only without wings, and after two weeks the insect of the next generation is ready for reproduction.

Control measures

The main method of combating such a pest, as flower thrips, is preventive measures in the form of quarantine measures. It is necessary to check all plant products for infection: planting material, cuttings, potted plants, flower sections. The easiest way to deal with flower thrips in the off-season, when you can remove plants, conduct soil and greenhouse treatment.

I must say that highly toxic pesticides are not enough that are environmentally hazardous, but in the case of this pest are also useless. He has a sufficiently high resistance to them, and leads a floral thrips secretive way of life, hiding in buds, buds, under the scales of plants, thereby becoming immune to chemical treatments. The most effective is the biological method: against the flower thrips release its enemies: predatory bugs and ticks.