Thrips – nasty plague

THRIPS (Frankliniella occidentalis)

Thrips feed on the contents of the leaves of the flowers, sucking with their mouth in the form of a sucking needle, and cause the formation of scars on the leaf and deforming its growth, damage in the form of yellowish, white or silver dots in the surface of the leaf, as well as waste in the form of small black dots, which are the excrement of these insects.

The above mentioned wounds on the folliage, later become necrotic, being able to affect all the leaves and cause the death of the plant. In general, white flowers are more attacked than those of yellow or red color, which is due to preference towards colors.

Environmental conditions

• Relative humidity: medium 40 – 60%
• Temperatures: 15-22 ˚C
• It affects petals and floral buttons
• Oral chewing apparatus scrapes edge of petals which causes necrosis.

The presence of thrips, not only affects the exterior and the health of the flower, it is a plague threat. When being transported to another country the propagation can happen uncontrollably. That is why, there is an official control entity in Ecuador that thoroughly checks a sample box, of each farm that arrives at the loading – AGROCALIDAD. If even the trace of thrips is detected in any bunch – the entire load of the farm is discarded. The risk of contamination is too high.

The buyers of flowers of the following countries are especially fussy about this issue: China, Japan, Australia. The sanitary norms of these countries do not admit nor an insinuation of presence of these bugs.

It is when it becomes vital to perform Quality Controls on farm, before dispatching.