Introduction:
Thrips (order Thysanoptera) have become one of the hardest pests to control in a greenhouse setting. Thrips are small, winged insects that reproduce very quickly, and can be in small places making it difficult to apply a pesticide treatment.
They use their sucking-piercing mouthparts to defoliate the leaves and flowers of greenhouse plants. This defoliation has caused the lost of many plants and dollars for greenhouse growers and because of this thrips must be controlled. There are multiple ways thrips can be monitored, typically thrips are sampled by using sticky cards throughout a greenhouse complex. The sticky cards work by actively attracting the thrips to the card with their bright yellow color, when the thrip goes …show more content…
The cards will be periodically checked to see the level of thrip infestation that is taking place. Based on the amount of thrips present the greenhouse manager will have to decide a method of treatment.
There are many problems with the current practice of surveying and treating thrips and that starts with the greenhouse managers or people that are doing the surveying and treatment not knowing how to properly conduct deal with thrips.
Another common problem is that many greenhouses are not willing to spend the money to replace the sticky cards on a regular basic, or they do not want to spend the time to count the trips on the cards to see the degree of infestation. (Steiner et al.
1999) Although thrips are a major greenhouse pest, there are many other pest that cause quite a bit of concern for greenhouse workers. Knowing about these other pest and they type of disease and problems they cause can help when managing thrips as well. Some of these pests include whiteflies, spider mites, and leaf minor moths. (Messelink and Janssen 2014).
Current Research:
Increased control of Thrips and Aphids in Greenhouses
What did they want to know?
They wanted to know about the control of aphids based off of what …show more content…
They also monitored different light intensity. The amount of N. cucumeris present was recorded and analyzed. (Zilahi-Balogh et al. 2007)
What did they learn?
They learned through there experiment that there was no effect of the different light intensities. They did discover that there was a slight difference when the N. cucumeris were placed in different temperatures. They did the best at 25 degrees Celsius. (Zilahi-Balogh et al. 2007)
What does this mean?
This information lets greenhouse growers know that to optimize the effect of
N. cucumeris helping control their thrip population that they should keep the environment around 25 degrees Celsius. This information means that growers don’t have to be concerned with the intensity of light but they should give a little attention to the temperature to get the highest thrip control.
Colonization and predation of thrips
What did they want to know?
Knowing that western flower thrips are one of the leading problems regarding sweet pepper crops the researchers wanted to see if they could use predators successfully as a way to treat thrips since the current use of pesticide
Thrips (order Thysanoptera) have become one of the hardest pests to control in a greenhouse setting. Thrips are small, winged insects that reproduce very quickly, and can be in small places making it difficult to apply a pesticide treatment.
They use their sucking-piercing mouthparts to defoliate the leaves and flowers of greenhouse plants. This defoliation has caused the lost of many plants and dollars for greenhouse growers and because of this thrips must be controlled. There are multiple ways thrips can be monitored, typically thrips are sampled by using sticky cards throughout a greenhouse complex. The sticky cards work by actively attracting the thrips to the card with their bright yellow color, when the thrip goes …show more content…
The cards will be periodically checked to see the level of thrip infestation that is taking place. Based on the amount of thrips present the greenhouse manager will have to decide a method of treatment.
There are many problems with the current practice of surveying and treating thrips and that starts with the greenhouse managers or people that are doing the surveying and treatment not knowing how to properly conduct deal with thrips.
Another common problem is that many greenhouses are not willing to spend the money to replace the sticky cards on a regular basic, or they do not want to spend the time to count the trips on the cards to see the degree of infestation. (Steiner et al.
1999) Although thrips are a major greenhouse pest, there are many other pest that cause quite a bit of concern for greenhouse workers. Knowing about these other pest and they type of disease and problems they cause can help when managing thrips as well. Some of these pests include whiteflies, spider mites, and leaf minor moths. (Messelink and Janssen 2014).
Current Research:
Increased control of Thrips and Aphids in Greenhouses
What did they want to know?
They wanted to know about the control of aphids based off of what …show more content…
They also monitored different light intensity. The amount of N. cucumeris present was recorded and analyzed. (Zilahi-Balogh et al. 2007)
What did they learn?
They learned through there experiment that there was no effect of the different light intensities. They did discover that there was a slight difference when the N. cucumeris were placed in different temperatures. They did the best at 25 degrees Celsius. (Zilahi-Balogh et al. 2007)
What does this mean?
This information lets greenhouse growers know that to optimize the effect of
N. cucumeris helping control their thrip population that they should keep the environment around 25 degrees Celsius. This information means that growers don’t have to be concerned with the intensity of light but they should give a little attention to the temperature to get the highest thrip control.
Colonization and predation of thrips
What did they want to know?
Knowing that western flower thrips are one of the leading problems regarding sweet pepper crops the researchers wanted to see if they could use predators successfully as a way to treat thrips since the current use of pesticide