Ok last year I had some thrip damage on two of my nectarine varieties. It was pretty bad on Double Delight and Nectaplum. The damage was bad enough to cause some splitting and fruit drop even in my greenhouse. At least I think that’s what caused it. What do I need to do to get a handle on them. If I remember correctly some of the damage can occur during the bloom. Is that right? Anyway just wondering if anyone has experience with thrips and has any advice for these critters. I need to start learning about this faster than I thought because with all this crazy weather my nectarines are starting to push buds and one starting blooming last week!
The stuff you want is spinosad. I use captain jacks deadbug concentrate. I believe 2 teaspoons per gallon but check your bottle. Spray inside blossoms until dripping wet. Apply to all flowers. If your tree flowers for 2 weeks hit it at about a week and half or towards end of flowering. Also best to spray at end of day to avoid bee activity. I’ve got thrips bad but one spray and I’ve got gorgeous nectarines! Piece of cake, wish all pests were this easy! Good luck!
The odd thing was there were only two varieties that showed damage. Those were Double Delight and Spice Zee. Don’t know why they didn’t bother the others. They did a little later than my super low chill types so that could be it or could it be the flower shape? Both DD and SZ are they double ruffly type blooms maye the thrips prefer those types? Any sence in that? Anyone else experience thrips preffering one variety over another. Thanks.
I have noticed that they do like the double flowers best. Also they don’t bother my very early nectarines. I have also noticed them in peach blossoms but they don’t seem to scar the peaches. If you are wondering if they are present or not just slap the blossom on your palm. The thrips will be very small but you will see them scurrying around on the palm of your hand. Its a good idea to spray all your nectarines except your earliest varieties as they seem to multiple as your orchard gets larger.You don’t need to spray your peaches though. One more tidbit on timing, as long as your trees in full bloom your good to spray. I try to spray towards the end of the flowering and late in day to impact bees less. Good observations!
Thanks again fruitgrower. I can tell you have a good amount of experience with fruit growing don’t you. One quick question when you say the thrips multiply as your orchard gets larger does that basically mean more trees equals more thrips? Great tip about the blossom slapping. Great way to monitor them. I consider observation to be the most important skill in gardening and fruit growing. Thank you for the tips I hope others here will read this.
Your welcome wildscaper, I am very fortunate to live in the north central California valley.To live here and not grow fruits and vegs would be a sin. There are many here more experienced than me. As your orchard grows more pests follow. This is no reason to stop planting. Like you say, observe and act accordingly. I have several good friends that farm many thousands of acres so if I don’t know what to do I call them. A lot of times I cant use what they are using because its labelled commercial and I’m organic so I must make my own methods up or read here. A good example is stinkbugs, all over my fruit. Well, after much thought got me a shop vac and several long extension cords, bye bye. So keep planting, there is always a way to deal with new pests! Happy gardening/fruit growing!
The above advice goes against the UC Davis IPM instructions:
"Spinosad can be toxic to certain natural enemies (e.g., predatory mites, syrphid fly larvae) and bees when sprayed and for about 1 day afterward; do not apply spinosad to plants that are flowering."
Since spinosad can only kill thrips that are feeding, and following the IPM information, it is recommended to spray after petal fall.
That’s why I wait till end of flowering cycle and end of day. In my experience if you wait till petal fall its too late. Unfourtunatley the thrips are very quik to scar fruit and most damage is done early on. There is always some new fruits at end of flowering cycle that get sprayed also. These just end up getting thinned due to scarring. I have tried spraying after petal fall but it doesn’t work for me as most fruit is scarred right at petal fall.
Spinosad will kill bees for a day after you spray. So spraying in the evening is still bad news for bees if there are flowers present. End of the flowering cycle is not an IPM terminology. Petal fall is an IPM term.
If you have the desire/need to spray flowers, spray with neem oil (in the evening). It won’t kill bees or thrips, but will repel thrips. Otherwise, follow the IPM recommendations and spray Spinosad after petal fall.
EDIT: I cannot find any other source that corroborates the UC Davis IPM assertion that Spinosad can kill bees for a full day. Three hours seems to be the consensus elsewhere.
The problem with Spin on open flowers is that it continues to kill bees for three hours after application. That seems a bit dicey to me unless you are pretty clear about when local pollinators become active. If things are quiet in the evening you might be safe to go then, although there are certain types of pollinators active at night, especially moths.
In my orchard, whatever is in full bloom gets almost all the bee attention. Towards the end of the flowering cycle there are already over half the fruit that have been formed and that’s when the thrips do their damage. There is at that time many other fruit trees and blueberries in full bloom that gather the bees. I have also observed that the bees seem to disappear in the evening. Because I don’t have thrips pressure on my early varieties, I only end up spraying a small number of trees. Its also labeled organic. I have never noticed any bee activity when I spray in last hour of light. This has been my experience and I’m just trying to help out cause no one had offered any solid info on this subject. Thanks
Thanks Fruitgrower for offering help on the subject. I think a lot of folks are rightly concerned about bees, but it also sounds like you are very careful. Bees do go back to the hive at night, so you are probably fairly bee safe using it as you do.
Spinosad is a good choice, if it works for you, because it’s also very mild on the environment and fairly friendly toward most beneficial insects.
Fortunately, I don’t have any insects which attack my fruit at bloom, but it’s sounds like you’ve had quite an ordeal with thrips.
I also appreciate your input and would probably do exactly what you are doing to protect your crop. I simply wanted to expand on your information because not everyone is careful about reading labels or considers the consequences of killing their own native pollinators. My own customers often fail to head my pleas that they mow their flowering weeds under their fruit trees during pesticide app season.
Thanks Olpea for the above valuable info on spinosad. I should have made it more clear on timing and how important it is to spray late in evening. In my part of California there is a lot of pests to deal with, lately its been the dried fruit beetle that infest most of my later peaches and nectarines right before they are ripe, spoiling the insides. On the bright side, once our growing season starts, we get little rain and lots of sun, so we trade off our many pests for virtually no fungal issues. Thank you Alan for your valuable input as well!
I think it’s important to note that bees fly from first light and many are still flying at last light. At least mine certainly do, especially if there is a flow on. I often have late comers bump into me when I can hardly see their hives and I am never up early enough to beat them to work. Also where I live they don’t stop for winter either, they just have shorter working days. Unfortunately this doesn’t make it easier to make bee safe spraying plans.
I am really sure that those of us who have an affinity with growing and nurturing things do the best they can to take care of our bees and other pollinators but who said it was easy.
With honey bees there is probably more risk of killing a lot of bees without directly poisoning a lot of bees when foragers bring it back to the hive. Here in the east coast, they are not present in many home orchards, although bee-keeping is a huge fad. If I was to accidentally kill some mason bees or any of my other wild pollinating allies it wouldn’t be a calamity because the main threat to them is actually declining habitat. I maintain habitat for them and any vacancy would likely quickly be filled.
If you love bees and other pollinators the most important thing you can do is provide them with a wide range of flowering plants on your property that are in bloom from early spring to late fall. Experts now believe that mono-culture may have more to do with the decline of honeybees than anything else. They cannot fulfill their nutritional needs with the pollen of any single plant and they are often moved from one single species to another and have access to only a few species during the season. Rather like a human trying to survive on McDonald’s food.
Man I’m glad I started this thread this is great info. In my case it’s going to be easy to handle. My trees are in pots so when the time comes to need to spray I can simply pull them into my greenhouse and close the door before I spray. No bees in there and they cant get in there when the doors close. I’ll let them sit in there for a day or so until toxicity is less then they can go back out. I only mention this because maybe someone else who grows in pots could do something similar like bringing trees into a garage for a day to treat then moving them back out doors. I appreciate all the info here.
This is not the case in my orchard. As the sun goes down the bees disappear, so about an hour of non activity before dark. However I do not have hives, and if I did I would think there would be some before bed activity there at the hive. What Alan mentioned about having lots of different flowering plants is very solid info and heeded here. They seem to be extremely fond of lavender. I feel your love for the bees, thanks for your input!