Thrips are a tiny insect, typically between one and two millimeters long. Some of them have wings, and the species is broadly divided into two sub-groups: the Terebrantia and the Tubulifera, distinguished by the different shape of their abdomens and prominence of a body part call the ovipositor.

Plant Feeders

The majority of thrips are plant feeders, making them a familiar pest to gardeners. They like to eat flowers, leaves, twigs and byds. A small number of thrips prefer fungus spores and other small anthropods such as mites, aphids and fellow trips even. Though rare, thrips can also sometimes bite a human hand with their piercing mouth parts.

Thrips are typically named also to match that target plant that they like to feast on. Among the most common species are onion thrips, melon thrips, Cuban laurel thrips, western flower thrips and glaidolus thrips. There are also strands, like greenhouse thrips, determined by their fondness for a particular environment, in this case the tempered, indoor climate of a man-made horticultural growing environment.

Cotton Season

Thrips can also be a major problem for cotton growers, in the Midwest of the United States and other worldwide regions. In Kansas for example, thrips have been found to migrate annually from wheat when it matures in the spring. The insects usually target seedling cotton, causing plant leaves to turn brown at the edges, then turn silvery.

Light cotton thrip infestations can delay plant growth, while heavy infestations can kill buds and take out entire crop sections. The only bright side for farmers is that thrips must get to cotton plants at the seedling stage. Once cotton plants reach the four to six-week-old stage, they can are usually able to outgrow thrip damage and recover.

Although the small size of thrips makes them hard to scout, one trick for farmers is to shake a sample seedling above a white sheet of office paper. Thrips shaken loose will drop onto the piece of paper and become more easily visible to the naked eye.