Pacific West Botanicals From Planting Instructions: under Pests and Diseases Thrips Thrips are near microscopic pests that feed by rasping soft flowers and leaf tissue then drinking the juices. In heavy infestations, flowers and leaves fail to open normally, twisted, or stuck together and discolored. Look closely and you will see seersucker puckerings in flower or leaf tissue and small black fecal pellets. Leaves take on a silvery or tan cast. Different from mite damage, no webbing. In May or March ( in desert ), thrips breed rapidly. They like white and light pink rose blossoms and gladiolus leaf and flower. Natural enemies are ladybird beetles and larvae, and green lacewing larvae, predaceous thrips and mites. |