Out of control.
We were down at Geelong on weekend, taking a wander toward the beach early in the afternoon. To begin with I thought I had walked through a cobweb, although for some reason I could not get it off my face. Then I thought ‘well that’s it then, uncy sid has finally caught up with me and I’ve finally lost it’. A strange peace came over me as I relaxed into my new found psychosis, until… I realised my white shirt was covered in little bugs.
I have since learnt that are thrips. By dusk they were thick in the air all over Geelong, noticable in every direction and annoying on every front.
I understand it is not just the city by the bay that’s coping it, but Melbourne and other areas of Australia.
Sign from God of the pending ammagedon?
Result of new weather patterns and we should get used to it?
wikkiwikki wrote: Thrips (Order Thysanoptera) are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings (thus the scientific name, from the Greek thysanos (fringe) + pteron (wing)). Other common names for thrips include thunderflies, thunderbugs, storm flies, and corn lice. Thrips species feed on a large variety of sources both plant and animal by puncturing them and sucking up the contents. A large number of thrips species are considered pests, because they feed on plants with commercial value. Some species of thrips feed on other insects or mites and are considered beneficial, while some feed on fungal spores or pollen. So far around 5,000 species have been described. Thrips are generally tiny (1 mm long or less) and are not good flyers, although they can be carried long distances by the wind. In the right conditions, many species can explode in population and swarm everywhere, making them an irritation to humans.
Management
Due to their small size, cryptophilic behavior, and high rate of reproduction, thrips are difficult to control using classical biological control. All predators must be small and slender enough to penetrate the crevices that thrips hide in while feeding, and then prey extensively on eggs and larvae. Only two families of parasitoid hymenoptera are known to parasitize eggs and larvae, the Eulophidae and the Trichogrammatidae. Other biocontrol agents of adults and larvae include aphid wasps, anthocorid bugs of genus Orius, and Phytoseiid mites. For this reason, many growers are occasionally forced to make limited use of pesticides to control thrips populations in the field and in greenhouses.
cia....
