This guide is brought to you by CropTalk Media, CropWalk, and our Canadian Contingency, the Thripsters, Dr. Rose Buitenhuis, Dr. Sarah Jandricic, and Ashley Summerfield.
Here, you’ll find lots of hyperlinked resources pointing you towards our suggested material for the best management practices for everything you can think of regarding the control thrips in greenhouse crops.
Note: the links will open new tabs. You can also hover over the hyperlinked text and look in the lower lefthand corner of your screen to see the URL where the link will take you.
Detailed General Information:
The Thripsters collaborated with Bobby Shearer, CropTalk’s #CropCareConvos host and CropWalk’s director of operations, to produce a series of 2 videos (totaling over 3 hours) and 1 podcast (about 90 minutes) that we feel covers basically everything you need to know to get started to #StartCleanStayClean in terms of thrips management.
The first CropTalk video, which primarily highlights western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis), features Dr. Rose Buitenhuis (Vineland Research Innovation Centre) and Dr. Sarah Jandricic (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, & Rural Affairs), two global authorities on thrips, present slides and answer questions about the following topics: systems-based IPM approaches, what being prepared really means, the link between fertilizer and biocontrol, dipping cuttings using mums as a case study, biocontrol options, microbial and fungal products, nematodes, how beneficial mites work, best practices with mite sachets, rescue strategies, pesticide options, and more!
The second CropTalk video, which primarily highlights onion thrips (Thrips tabaci), features Ashley Summerfield and more from Dr. Jandricic. Summerfield is a rockstar in her own right, and a University of Guelph graduate student of Rose Buitenhuis, Sarah Jandricic, and one of CropWalk’s scientific advisors, Dr. Cynthia Scott-Dupree. Topics addressed in this video include the history of thrips control, what's causing failures in thrips control?, thrips survey results, how beneficial mites harass thrips (ie, non-consumptive effects), thrips identification tips, what to do after ID?, onion thrips in greenhouse floriculture crops, damage patterns on foliage, flowers, and buds, an IPM strategy for thrips, and a Q&A session.
The thrips management CropTalk podcast in this series features Dr. Buitnehuis again and Charlie McKenzie of CropWalk chatting with Bobby Shearer about the best management practices for using biological control in your IPM program. They get into the quality assurance of biocontrol products, the best practices for biocontrol application, scouting tips, how to bolster biocontrol populations, and more.
Outside of content produced by CropTalk Media, The Thripsters have published some great stuff! Dr. Jandricic runs a blog called ONfloriculture, where she’s written on lots of specific topics in thrips management.
While we’re on the topic of detailed general information about thrips management, here are a few publications from reliable sources that we suggest:
Here’s a link to a series of six detailed articles and short videos from Vineland Research and Greenhouse Canada Magazine:
“Designing your greenhouse IPM program,”
“Prevention and early intervention,”
“The rise of microbes,”
“1001 ways to use beneficial mites,”
“How to use non-crop plants,” and
“Pesticide compatibility with biocontrol.”
Written by biocontrol specialists Rose Buitenhuis, Michael Brownbridge, and Graeme Murphy, these six articles (a-f) offer application tips and tricks, information on new technologies and are supplemented by short videos demonstrating techniques or principles.
“Integrated pest management in western flower thrips: past, present, and future” was published in 2017 in Pest Management Science by Sanae Mouden, Kryss Facun Sarmiento, Peter GL Klinkhamer, and Kirsten A Leiss.
“Identification, lifecycle, damage, and treatment options for thrips in gardens and landscapes” and “thrips management in floriculture and ornamental nurseries,” are useful resources from our friends at the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE).
Here’s a great summary of the best practices for thrips IPM by Vineland Research that was funded by the American Floral Endowment.
Thrips Identification
The accurate ID of thrips is important since different species respond to the same treatment differently. There is North American bias with these thrips identification resources, but they should still be useful for many folks elsewhere.
Jandricic, Summerfield, Buitenhuis, & Scott-Dupree published “New Thrips on the Block,” to help greenhouse growers tell different common species of thrips apart.
Summerfield and Jandricic also published this dichotomous key to thrips species in Canadian greenhouses that proves helpful for growers elsewhere.
Here’s a highly-detailed field identification guide to the thrips species of the United States produced by USDA-APHIS and written by Amanda Hodges (Univ. of Florida), Scott Ludwig (Texas IPM Program), Lance Osborne (Univ. of Florida), and G.B. Edwards (Florida Dept. of Ag.) in collaboration with researchers across the country.
It is part of UF’s larger database of thrips identification resources.
Preventing Thrips (“starting clean”)
Here’s an article from Dr. Buitenhuis, “How to Stop Thrips From Hiding in Your Greenhouse,” where she describes a process for using cutting dips to prevent hitchhikers on incoming plants.
Here’s an article by Dr. Jandricic outlining the timing, tools, key players, and pro-tips for using biocontrol to prevent thrips outbreaks.
And here are some accompanying tips on how to avoid accidentally killing your beneficial mites.
Dr. Buitenhuis and Dr. Michael Brownbridge discuss non-crop plants in thrips IPM in this paper which highlights banker plants, trap crops, and indicator plants.
This is a live and growing resource - your feedback and suggestions for additional resources are always welcome. Please contact us if you find broken links!
We’re learning and growing together! #FarmersHelpingFarmers
The last edit was made on 10/06/2020.