I found a handful of these on my chillies so far.
Thrips are tiny insects that you probably already know about, but you don't know that they're destructive to your chillies. Ever had one of those little wormy flies land on your arm while out in the heat of summer? Those are thrips.
Unfortunately they often come with the soil, as seems to have happened to me, so there's really not a lot you can do to prevent them. The best advice is to be vigilant, and stop a sporadic thrip becoming an outbreak. Thrip watch!
Always check under leaves with a loupe / magnifying glass - that's where most bugs hide, thrips, broad mites, aphids, and so on, and so on. Daily spot checks of leaf undersides is a must, even if you think you are bug free!
Aluminium Mulch
This simply means putting a collar of aluminium over the plant's stem base from the stem right to the edge of the pot. Don't worry, it's not for the oven, it's simply a potential thrip disruption tactic.
This is how it's SUPPOSED to work: Thrips go into the soil to lay eggs. They know where the soil is because it's dark and soily. By putting aluminium there, it makes the soil look a lot more like the sky, and the thrips have no idea where the soil is. Kind of like a hall of mirrors for a thrip.
Other Measures
Like most pest control methods, I imagine it won't work alone - which is where other measures come in. Namely
1) I have a couple of willing volunteers. I have no idea where they came from, but they're VERY welcome
2) Quarantine of known infested plants and daily inspections/squishing - thankfully thrips on plants are big enough to see and also just about big enough to squish.
Currently only one plant has a confirmed thrip problem and I'm picking off around two daily at this time. So, it's not panic stations yet. Let's hope we can keep it that way!
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