Hi forum,
a bit more than a year ago, my "thrips journey" started with a calathea which had them suddenly. It died because I could not get them under control. Unfortunately, they spread quite a bit and almost every plant I had was killed by them. I had no chance against them! I tried everyhing:
* washing the plants in the shower.
* neem oil spray.
* predatory mites.
Nothing helped, I was totally unable to get them under control and most of my plants were killed. Then I found a chemical insecticide and used that. With some moderate success and also with bringing my plants outside on the balcony I had the impression I got the thrips under control. For almost an entire year I didn't see a single thrips on my plants. BUT! today, I noticed one of my peperomias (P. Rotundifolia I believe) was dropping leaves. I examined it and guess what - I found thrips on them! I could immediately cry. This plant was NOT infested when I brought it home, and it was fine for around 3, 4 months, and today it has thrips. I examined all my other plants and found thrips on another peperomia that was nearby. Interestingly, no thrips visible so far on the plants that were close to that peperomia.
Of ourse I started to fight those thrips. I start with washing them off over the kitchen sink with tap water. This way I can remove them quite efficient I believe, at least it looks like so.
But wat bothers me the most: where do they come from? why didn't I see them for almost a year, and all of a sudden, they show up on a plant? I cannot understand this. It's winter here, freezing outside, so they cannot come from outside I guess. Can they go into some sort of dormancy and wait months or probably years until the conditions get better?
and, seriously, how can I get rid of them once and for all? I have quite a few plants, but I don't have so much space that I can place the plants in individual quarantine rooms. Also, how could I be sure that one particular plant is "clean" ? Of course I could move all my plants in my bed room, for example, and let them be for a couple weeks. And then, as soon as I know the plant is clean, I could move one after another to its previous place. However, the peperomia has showed me: it is not possible to tell that a plant has "no thrips". You cannot be sure. That damn thing didn't have a single insect on it, and now it has, I have no idea from where.
I am almost thinking about whether I should throw all my plants away. It isn't really fun to fight against those thrips forever. I have put the chemical insecticide in almost all pots (it's systemic insecticide, i.e. gets absorbed by the plants and if the thrips chew on them they get poisoned). But I doubt this will suffice. Could it be that it is impossible to get rid of thrips, once they are here?
