I have thrips in my sunroom. Do they secrete a sticky substance and how do I get rid of them?

Question

I took a picture with my digital SLR and blew it up. It's black, thin, 6 legs, antenna, and a stinger-like tail. They are tiny to the eye. They are on my furniture, rug, etc. A speck of food attracted a ton of them. And this may sound odd but they seem to be attacted to yellow plastic.

Answer 1

bugsie got it all right except thrips CAN leave the sticky sap-like honeydew you described, depending where they are on the plant. If you want to really know what they are get a yellow sticky trap at a good L&G center and put it near your plants. All the things bugsie mentioned except spider mites are attracted to them. Then take a look in a day or 2 and see what you have. If there's nothing on the sticky trap it's probably spider mites because they can't fly to the trap. I usually recommend Shultz Houseplant Insect Killer for all of them because it has some residual activity and it's safe to use indoors. You can also use a horticultural oil, neem oil, or insecticidal soap but these are contact killers and thrips are so small it's hard to hit'em all. Good luck

Answer 2

Thrips are practically invisible and lurk in flowers, not foliage. To know whether you have thrips, hold a flowering plant upside-down over a piece of paper and tap it. If little black specks fall onto the paper, there's your thrips.

In other words, thrips are not your problem. Many greenhouse pests are attracted to yellow so greenhouses use yellow plastic sticky traps (about the size of an index card) to identify what pests they have.

Take your picture to a local greenhouse/nursery. They will be able to confirm the ID of the pest and recommend treatment. Bugs that are attracted to food and furniture, however, don't sound like plant pests to me....

Answer 3

tHRIPS ARE AN INSECT THAT DOES HAVE WINGS, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE WEEK FLIERS, IT IS POSSABLE THEY CAME IN THROUGH THE SCREENING, THEY ARE SMALL ENOUGH.
They are not worms, they are a flying insect.
They suck out the chlorophyll from plants leaving the plant leaves distorted in shape and most often full of little tiny brown pinpoint marks.
Thrips do not leave behind sticky honeydew.
That is actually an excrement of Aphids, or mealy bug and also white fly. and scale.
All of those four insects can be seen easily with the naked eye.
Also thrips like to hang out near to the pollen source. Plants like daises, Garden mums,roses,Calla lilies, all will have thrips in and around the pollen.
Aphids will be lined up on the new shoots and leaves.
Mealy bugs will be in protected places like the bracks and under the pot rim.
Scale will be lined up on the stems and main veins of leaves (mostly)
White fly will cover the entire plant, but mostly the underside of the leaves, unless you have a really bad case.
So in conclusion, I think thrips is the most unlikely of all the bugs you could have! probably one of the other four!

Answer 4

well hun, i dont think they might be thrips because Thrips are very, very tiny worms almost invisible to the naked eye. you have to get really close to them in order for you to see them and they are mainly found on citrus trees and hibiscus not in houses. Aphids on the other hand can puncture leaves on trees like pecan for example and make them secrete a substance called sucrose, sap or sooty mold which becomes black after a few days and its very sticky thus staining evrything it lands on. you can go to Home Depot's garden center, walmart's garden center or any nursery and purchase an insecticide for those types of insects to get rid of them.

Answer 5

Thrips or Aphids try soap and water and spray them or neem oil works good also.

Answer 6

I don't know what a thrip is, but it sounds like you have slugs to me. Pour salt on them. They melt.