Take all of your blooms of and keep the off for 4 weeks.
The thrips will starve.

Avid will kill thrips. 1/8 tesp per gal water. several spaying will work. 3-4 spraying every 7 days for mites.

As with any insecticide were a mask,gloves and ventilate.

Travis

I agree with Travis. Take off every flower and every bud and keep them off for two months.

You can also put them in a tray and slide the whole tray into a garbage bag. Then put a yellow no pest strip in. Leave these for 24 hours then take them out. This should get any thrip that might be there.

No flowers means no food for the beasties. They do have a period when they are in the soil and that's why you need the no pest strip.

Thrips are very dangerous animals to have these days. They carry a virus called Impatience Necrotic Spot Virus which is deadly for the plant and possibly for your whole collection.

Nancy

Winnie -

I would remove all buds and spray with Avid. Since I have a large collection - and I am spraying from time to time against powdery mildew and sneaky thrips - plus I have roses outside - I chipped $130 some dollars, got to the site www.rosemania.com and got myself an electric Hudson sprayer. It is good. I carry upstairs plants to the garage and spray them there, and the basement grow room gets sprayed on a spot.

I doubt that you can "starve" them - thrips easily feed on the baby leaves as well - if pollen is not available.
But total disbudding is a must. You remove 95% of them immediately.

I understand your frustration, but now it is the time when we open windows and thrips will probably infiltrate our collections from outside - the window screen is not going to stop them.

Throwing violets out because you got thrips... we do not burn our houses even if we see a spider inside. Or roach. We fight them. You already have Avid, so no extra expenses.

Good luck

irina

Yes, listen to the experts! Don't toss your collection. Starting over there is still a chance of getting thrips again.

tish

I've tackled thrips on two separate occasions over a year apart. Even when you think you are going to put a gun to your head.....be patient :) It will get better.

I echo the encouragement and directions of those before me when they said to remove
EVERY
SINGLE
BLOOM/BUD
as soon as you see it peeking from where the leaf meets the stem.
Be diligent with this disbudding and then spray and you'll get them.

Good Luck from someone who has lived to tell about it.
Dora

What do thrips look like? I found some black tiny bugs, look like sugar ants crawling on the pots my violets are in and took one out of the pot and there in the bottom of the pot were bunches of them but they had white wings sort of like termites. Any answers for me?

Mother hubbard,

What you are describing are spring tails.They really aren't harmful, just aesthetically displeasing.

Larry

MOther,
Thrips are very small and almost non-visible to the naked eye. They are as big around as a piece of hair and as long as 5 pieces of hair put side by side.

They're white in color and leave signs like pollen spilled on darker colored blooms (you can't see the contrast on lighter colored blooms) and on leaves.

Dora