# Help!!! Thrips!!!



## DaRkOmEn (Aug 23, 2005)

Havn't been able to find much info on this board about them. They came in some vivarium substrate jungle mix I didnt know what they were at first and now there starting to multiply like crazy. There attacking new growth in leaves and deforming them. I guess they actually burrow into the leaf and stems to lay eggs then the larvae eats it's way out. Anyway's I dont have any frogs in the viv yet and I don't know if they would take care of these pest or not. Also I know using sprays is a big no no but what do you guys think of this? Its called Agrizyme Natural Pest Killer. http://www.wormsway.com/detail.asp?sku=AGR700


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## twisner (Jul 7, 2005)

umm i dont know about that stuff, but what may be good is some low concentration spraying of neem oil. I dont know if it is safe though, so dont use it yet, but it is organic, so as long as you dont directly spray frogs with it and there arent any in the tank yet, i would assume it is ok. 
Someone tell us if it is safe please.


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## EDs Fly Meat (Apr 29, 2004)

Thrips! Get out the frog sized forks and napkins. The only thing that the thrips may do is eat any flowers you have in the tanks.
Dave


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## Ryan (Feb 18, 2004)

Is it safe for thrips to be eaten by frogs? BTW thrips + Eye = most pain in my life...and i have had my finger split with the back ofa hammer. It felt like acid in my eye, then again it may of had some toxin from the ficus out in the yard...(not going to feed those to my frogs btw)

Ryan


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## Dartfrogfreak (Jun 22, 2005)

could someone post na pic of Thrips


Thanx,


TODD


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## DaRkOmEn (Aug 23, 2005)

Here ya go. Mine look like the western flower variety. There really hard to make out any feature's without a magnifying glass. (very tiny) The younger ones range from yellow, light brown or green. When they are adults they look silvery brown to dark brown and they get wings. Mine seem to be doing damage to new leaf growths on an Alocasia and a peperomia and there all over and orchid that's mounted on cork as well. There's no flowers in my tank so they gotta eat something right?


http://www.extento.hawaii.edu/kbase/view/thrips.htm


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## littlefrog (Sep 13, 2005)

twisner said:


> umm i dont know about that stuff, but what may be good is some low concentration spraying of neem oil. I dont know if it is safe though, so dont use it yet, but it is organic, so as long as you dont directly spray frogs with it and there arent any in the tank yet, i would assume it is ok.
> Someone tell us if it is safe please.


I hate to be the bad guy, but 'organic' doesn't mean safe. Natural products are not necessarily harmless. They often are less harmful, but not always. Most of the most potent poisons known to man are produced by plants or animals. Ricin, botulin, amanitins (the active ingredients in death angel mushrooms), and thousands of other things you don't want to eat. If nothing else, consider the nasty poison that some PDFs would make if they were in their natural habitat.

Sorry, pushed a button... Neem oil (derived from the neem tree) is possibly safe, but I wouldn't be 100% confident. Supposedly the active incredient (which I can't spell) has anti-feedant properties for many insects. They just don't want to eat. I doubt that would carry over to the frogs, but... A large portion of neem oil's effectiveness is that it is an oil, and like any light oil it smothers insects. I don't know what the effect of getting these oils on frogs would be, which is where I'd be most concerned.

One thing that works for me in the greenhouse and shouldn't leave a residue is isopropyl alcohol. I'd definitely remove the critters to a temporary home first. Spray the affected plants with alcohol (right out of the bottle is fine). Do whatever other maintenance you might need to do, and wait for the alcohol smell to go away. It might take a few hours, or days... Dunno, I've never tried it in an enclosed space like a vivarium. You may have to repeat the treatment a few times.

I might just let them run wild and provide 'food on the hoof'.


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## Dartfrogfreak (Jun 22, 2005)

Thanx for posting those links.


Wouldnt the frogs eat them.
I would think they wouldnt be a problem for the frogs to eat them sounds like they are not any bigger than springtails.



BTW DaRkOmEn what type of frog is your avatar??


TODD


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## twisner (Jul 7, 2005)

there arent frogs in the viv right now, just to clear that up. So i think that you could use the neem oil or alcohol just fine.
And the frog in his avatar is an intermedius with these hella cool green legs.


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## Blort (Feb 5, 2005)

You could try Marty's CO2 method. He filled his vivarium with CO2 to kill some millepedes (I think). Seemed to work for him. But, I would go with what Dave says and let the frogs take care of it themselves.


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## DaRkOmEn (Aug 23, 2005)

Thanks for the input everyone. I tried a couple of diff things 1st a non toxic sticky fly trap. > didnt work 2nd was some kindda pest control pad> that aslo didnt work. 3rd I poured some beer in a shallow dish first couple of days nothing then this mornig there was about twelve of um in there. Guess it just a to ferment a bit more to really attract um.


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## Ryan (Feb 18, 2004)

I've tried marty's dry ice method, and OMG its awesome...

Cost of dry ice is about 13 bucks for more hten i could of ever used(ended up having fun with it in the bathtub etc...) 

I used a bunch in a viv that had roach eggs, did it almost all day, hoping to kill eggs too, and then did it to all of my grow chambers for plants, and notice a growth improvement in addition to pests being killed.

Very easy to do, so ever have a bug problem, run up to the closest carbonic shop.

Ryan


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