How to control onion thrips? Practical methods explained in one article

Damage characteristics: It mainly damages Allium vegetables such as Welsh onion, onion, water onion, scallion, Chinese chives, and garlic, as well as tobacco, cotton, and others. Adults and nymphs use their rasping-sucking mouthparts to damage the heart leaves and tender buds of host plants, causing the host leaves to form many long yellow-white or gray-white streaks, and the leaves become twisted and deformed.

Morphological characteristics: Adults are 1.2-1.4 mm long, light yellowish brown, with yellow-white wings.

Life habits: Onion thrips occurs 6-10 generations per year in North China, with the most severe damage from April to May. Adults are very active and can spread by wind, and feed strongly in the morning and evening or on cloudy days. When the temperature is around 25°C and the relative humidity is below 60%, onion thrips is prone to occur. Storms can reduce its occurrence numbers.

Control methods

(1) Remove weeds and residual plant debris and fallen leaves in the field, burn them in a centralized manner or bury them deeply, and eliminate overwintering insects.

(2) Strengthen fertilizer and water management to promote robust plant growth.

(3) Chemical control. Choose 80% dichlorvos emulsifiable concentrate 1000-fold solution, or 50% phoxim emulsifiable concentrate 1000-fold solution, or 20% fenvalerate emulsifiable concentrate 3000-4000-fold solution, or 4.5% beta-cypermethrin 3000-3500-fold solution, etc. for spraying.