I don't think so. Female flower thrips are less than 1/16 of an inch long and are brownish orange in color. Males are even smaller and pale in color. They are hard to spot without a magnifier. I need a clearer photo and size perspective to id what you have there.

Jim

All I can really make out is that it (the bug) has really long antenna. Thrips aren't known for their antenna length. Is it a baby katydid? How small do they start?

Picture is pretty fuzzy and you don't mention the size. The only ones I could come up with are Green Lacewing, or Green winged stonefly. Lacewings are beneficials, Stone flys live near water and eat algae.

That teeny tiny guy is on one of the petals of the newly opened C. Olivia. The petals are maybe 3/4" across. And already riddled with what looks like thrip bites! I know white flowers are especially sensitive to damage from rain ..and I've tried to be gentle with the hose. I have seen lace wing eggs from time to time so maybe that's what this is.

Thanks, Ursula and Ken, for your answers about the "stars". So useful!
I still don't know, however, what an "acorn" is for: money on ATP? Why would I need money for on ATP? What I read on the website is very confusing to me.

Acorns are a good thing to have, you can buy raffle tickets with them. We just had a raffle a couple of weeks ago.
You can give them to people as reward for a particular post or article. (They are listed at the front page of ATP, see recently tipped.)
If you add plants to the database, you will receive acorns for that.

Added on - you need acorns to purchase our badges!

Jacques, acorns don't really have value per se (you can't cash them in), but they are used as "currency" when purchasing things like raffle tickets (watch for raffles posted on the opening, home page of ATP). In the past, Dave has offered ATP tee-shirts for purchase with acorns. I don't know whether he still does this. A fun thing to do with acorns is to gift them to others when you read a post or article that you really like or which you think is very helpful to you or to others. People love to get these acorn gifts as it shows that their efforts have not only been appreciated but also rewarded.

I'm stuck here at the Extension on MG desk duty all day until 5:00. Then I head further south to a Library to give the advanced orchid presentation. I should be home about 9PM. Keep the chatter coming as a slow day on the phones is a drag.

Jim

OK - I can tell you what the questions, if the phone ever rings, will be so you can practice your answers.

Why can't I get centipede grass to grow under my Live Oak?
I used Weed & Feed in Ohio, why can't I use it here?.
My peonies died.
Why do I have to do a soil test?
Can I plant pansies now?
I pruned my mophead hydrangeas in January, why aren't I getting any flowers?
My Lilacs died.
I sprayed Round Up on the flower beds and it killed everything not only the weeds like it was supposed to.
etc. etc. etc.

Alice, it looks like you have done this before!
Jim, I am a little late to provide some of the entertainment section, but here it goes. Better late than never....
There is one big fat bloom, with a somewhat jaunty dorsal sepal on my Bc Angel Lace.

Oberonia toppingii is now almost fully open. It is kinda tough to capture the nice sparkle on those teensy individual "blooms" in afternoon sunshine.

And this Epi secundum type starts up again.

dendrobium palpebrae
My dendrobium is in bloom ,has given only one spike. Last year had given me four spikes and it is a lovely bloom.
Prabhi S

Ursula, Love the color on 'Angel lace" and the Epi, too.
prabhisetty, that is a lovely bloom!

Ursula the Angel Lace is beautiful!!!!

Phrabi that's a lot of blooms for a thin spike

Thanks
Prabhi, pretty Dendrobium!!

This Dendrobium I bought last Easter had buds, and thankfully did not blast!
It is now in bloom: Dendrobium Jonathan's 'Dark Joy'



And Sarcochilus is holding well too, and I detect a faint sweet scent in the mornings:

they both look wonderful!

Thank you Ursula

Nice ones Tarev...and Prabhi , your dendrobium palpebrae is beautiful!

I just hit the send button and my taxes are gone. So is my money but at least that awful chore is finished.

Jim

I smell refund!!