Before choosing the best insecticide for thrips: inspect fresh damage
Adults have slender bodies and narrow fringed wings. Feeding punctures surface cells, producing silvering, pale flecks and distortion, often with dark varnishlike frass. Examine the insect beside the damaged tissue.
Thrips include plant feeders, harmless visitors and beneficial predators. Species identification needs microscopic examination and specialist skills. Match the pest species before selecting a biological-control organism.
Thrips have feeding larvae and non-feeding transitional stages before adulthood. Eggs occur on or within plant tissue. Later stages occupy soil, litter or plant crevices according to species. Inspect sheltered sites alongside exposed foliage.
Thrips may leave a plant part before injury becomes obvious. Rose-petal damage begins inside buds, and fruit scars retain evidence of earlier feeding. Compare fresh injury on developing tissue with older scars.
Adult trap catches and pollen-feeding thrips in flowers need to be compared with crop injury. Examine the plant parts being damaged and identify the species responsible before deciding on treatment.
Western flower thrips transmit tomato spotted wilt virus and impatiens necrotic spot virus. Submit affected tissue for laboratory diagnosis when investigating suspected virus symptoms.
Predatory thrips, lacewings, minute pirate bugs, mites and parasitoid wasps attack plant-feeding thrips. Preserve these organisms and check their relationships with the identified pest.
Thrips hide in buds, folded leaves and other sheltered structures, making contact difficult. Combine crop hygiene, natural enemies and selective interventions where required. Inspect protected feeding sites after treatment.
Some thrips feed on fungal spores or pollen. Check their feeding activity before classifying flower visitors as pests.
Photograph thrips beside intact buds, fresh silvering and dark frass. Label the crop compartment and plant part.
Record a trap’s exposure period, whether it moved and whether its surface was obscured. Pair that observation with examination of equivalent new tissue. Keep an old scar distinct from fresh injury, and separate the insect identification from a laboratory enquiry about a suspected plant virus.
Scout and protect young plants
Shake foliage or flowers over white paper to dislodge thrips. Inspect the fallen insects under magnification and compare the plant tissue for fresh silvering or frass. Blue or bright yellow sticky traps detect flying adults. Keep the trap identity and exposure period beside the plant inspection.
Exclude thrips from young vegetables with fine-mesh covers or cages installed before emergence or over pest-free transplants. Support the material above sensitive upright tips. Remove covers as crops outgrow the space or temperatures create overheating. Arrange drip or furrow irrigation for covered beds.
Reflective mulch interferes with flying insects locating host plants. It is most useful while young, initially pest-free plants occupy little of the reflective surface. As foliage expands, review the amount of exposed material and continue direct crop inspection.
On a few small ornamental plants, prune and destroy infested terminals. Cut above branch crotches and nodes. Avoid shearing dense foliage into a uniform surface: shearing encourages tender growth susceptible to thrips. Check irrigation and avoid excess nitrogen while new growth develops.
On citrus, inspect the calyx end beneath the sepals of young fruit. Thrips feeding there leaves rusty or silvery halos on the top of the fruit as it develops.
Keep your spray records in one place. Free to start.
Before choosing the best insecticide for spider mites: confirm mites and predators
Confirm spider mites before comparing a miticide spray or a product sold as a spider mite insecticide, which targets arachnids. For a proposed systemic insecticide, check plant movement and authorised mite use. Spider mites are arachnids. Broad-spectrum insecticides can worsen outbreaks by removing their natural enemies.
Spider mites remove cell contents, initially causing pale stipples. Foliage later bronzes, yellows, reddens or falls. Examine leaf undersides with a hand lens for mites, eggs and webbing.
Shake mites from a leaf onto white paper and watch their movement. Compare the organisms with a hand lens to distinguish pests from predators.
Hot, dusty conditions favour spider mites, with early infestations often near tracks and planting margins. Mites disperse as foliage declines. Compare hot spots with less affected sections of the crop.
Water stress makes plants more susceptible to mite injury. Check irrigation performance alongside mite counts when investigating declining foliage.
Predatory mites generally move faster and have longer legs and more teardrop-shaped bodies than spider mites. Certain lady beetles, flies, thrips and other insects also prey on mites. Identify these organisms before changing biological control.
Contact oils and soaps must reach mites, particularly on leaf undersides. Water-stressed plants are vulnerable to treatment injury. Check plant condition, coverage and the exact product label together.
Spider mites develop through eggs, larvae, nymphs and adults. Record those stages separately from predators.
Predatory mites need suitable prey and conditions. They leave or starve where prey is absent. Commercially supplied predators differ in environmental requirements. Match the organism to the crop environment before planning a release.
Map dusty tracks, vehicle turning areas and dry passages beside affected rows. Compare coated foliage with less exposed crop sections; dust promotes mite outbreaks and disrupts natural control.
Examine mite eggs and legs under a lens
Adult spider mites have oval bodies, red eyespots and eight legs. Newly hatched larvae have six legs; later immature stages have eight. Eggs are spherical and translucent, becoming cream-coloured before hatching. Photograph eggs and moving stages on the same leaf underside.
Female mites often have dark lateral blotches and bristles on their bodies and legs. Compare those structures with the faster movement and longer legs of predatory mites. Keep the magnified image beside the crop’s webbing and stippling photographs.
Before choosing the best insecticide for strawberries: distinguish lygus feeding from poor pollination
Poor pollination and lygus feeding both distort strawberries. Individual seeds and the surrounding berry tissue show which cause applies. Examine them before choosing an insecticide for strawberry plants.
Lygus feeding damages individual seeds and interrupts growth of surrounding tissue. Large, hollow, straw-coloured seeds indicate feeding injury; small undeveloped seeds are associated with poor pollination. Inspect seeds under magnification.
Many insecticides used against lygus disrupt spider-mite natural enemies. Include mite and predator observations when reviewing a strawberry treatment programme.
Lygus adults are flattened and oval with a pale triangle on their backs. Young nymphs resemble aphids but move faster. Older nymphs have five dark dorsal dots. Photograph the body and markings for identification.
Next step
Record fresh injury and the organisms found on the crop. Enter the findings in the IPM monitoring sheet and check proposed products through the Malta authorisation guide.