# Springlike bugs all over my African Violet



## nish07

Anyone seen these before?

I wish I could get a closer pic. They're fast and they're more white than anything. Not quite as articulated as the folsoma springs. There is a slight dark area on them but it's not visible till you get up close (just behind the center on the back).










-Nish


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## hexentanz

Oh man it has been ages since I have seen these, but i believe they are called thrips.


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## elmoisfive

Good photo showing various stages of thrip development.

Bill

http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-organic-and-hydroponics-gardening.com/images/thrips-in-stages.jpg


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## inflight

Yep, that's thrip. we deal with it on the geraniums that we grow sometimes.

Thom O.


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## jonandkate

Nice thrips pics. You must have a decent camera to catch them.

I'm an entomologist with USDA, part of my job is greenhouse management, and we get thrips as pests but your flower thrips should pose little problem to your vivarium. Chances are your frogs will eat them. If you want more info look up 'Thysanoptera' or flower thrips and you'll get more info than you probably want.

Just in case, watch for discolored spots on leaves that would indicate a bigger thrips problem (or if you see literally dozens of them all over a plant), otherwise they're just one more supplemental frog snack. 

~Jon


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## littlefrog

Thrips are a pain in the rear...

Get on top of it now, they reproduce quickly and are very hard to eliminate once they spread.


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## nish07

Being that the violet isn't going into a viv, I quickly removed the flowers (as suggested on a website I checked) and sprayed/watered with ortho systemic insecticide. It contains one of the chemicals which was known to kill thrips.

I'll be doing this two more times at approximately 7 day intervals to kill off hatchlings.

Thanks for the help, I would never had guessed they were such a pest unless someone mentioned it to me.

-Nish

P.S. The camera is a canon sd790 which I purchased approximately a year ago for 100 more dollars than it is now. I'd recommend it to anyone as the digital macro and other functions like hand-shake-eliminator and vivid color setting make it very nice for a point and shoot.

I don't know what new is out these days but I won't ever complain about the camera and I'm glad I waited/did my homework on it.


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