Are you spotting tiny black bugs on your houseplants? There’s a chance that thrips are living on these houseplants. We also call these bugs thunderbugs. But what do thrips look like? Thrips are small and very thin insects with wings. These elongated black bugs love to stay on a plant. Despite being small, they cause a lot of damage to plants by sucking plant cells empty. We’d love to tell you what you can do against thrips to get rid of them in your home.
How do thrips get into your home?
To fight thrips, it’s important to know how they get into your home. These tiny bugs enter unnoticed. They hitch a ride on plants, on clothing, or blow in with the wind through open windows or doors. What might surprise you is that these little bugs have wings. This makes it easy for them to get onto houseplants and fly straight to other plants. They are so small that you don’t notice it at the time. You’ll probably only notice the thrips once there are several in the plant or when they cause visible damage.
Are thrips dangerous?
Are thrips dangerous? The answer for you is no, but for plants, unfortunately, yes. They cause damage to plants. Thrips feed on plant sap and can cause a lot of damage to the flowers and leaves. They pierce the plant’s cells and suck out the juices. After the plant is damaged, you’ll see silvery spots, which is how you recognize the plant is suffering from thrips. That’s why we’d love to tell you what you can do against thrips under the heading ‘fighting thrips’.
Fighting thrips
Now that we know what thrips look like, we’re going to fight them. Fighting thrips is quite a task and requires effort. But as a plant lover, you’re probably willing to do this for your beautiful plants. With the following steps, you can fight thrips in the best way:
Isolate
Isolating thrips is one of the ways to fight them. You do this by putting the plant with thrips outside. Definitely do this if your other plants don’t have any thrips visitors yet. Before you isolate the plant, check what temperature it can handle. Of course, the plant shouldn’t freeze.
Cleaning or spraying
Thrips don’t like high humidity and water. Do you see thrips on your plants? Then spray them with water. Put your plant under the shower and give it a good rinse. After this, use a brush (for example, a make-up brush) over the leaves to wash the thrips away.
Note: do not put an orchid under a shower; try to fight the thrips by isolating the plant or follow the next tip.
Biological pesticide
You can fight thrips biologically with a mixture of soft soap and water. Mix a little bit of soft soap with water and spray the plant with the mixture. Repeat this every week until all thrips are gone.
Biological control agents
Fight them with biological control agents by hanging breeding sachets in the plant.
Tips to prevent thrips
To prevent thrips, we recommend making sure plants are in the right spot, get enough water, and avoiding dry air. Thrips love dry air, so make sure you have higher humidity in the room. You can do this by putting saucers of water on the radiator, which causes the water to evaporate and creates the right humidity to prevent thrips.
Want to read more about the best care tips for orchids? Then take a look at our care tips.
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