Discovering more about thrips to battle them properly

Recent collaborative research from Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agri-Business (OMAFA), Agriculture & Agri Food Canada (AAFC), and Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland) has helped reveal some key components of Thrips parvispinus ecology and behaviour.

This has helped us to develop monitoring approaches for this pest in greenhouse floriculture, and is helping to point us towards optimized control strategies. This research was covered in a recent webinar hosted by Flowers Canada Growers (linked to in the post below).

Professional athletes study their opponent’s match videos to learn about them and anticipate their moves; chess players and strategy game enthusiasts play to their opponent’s strengths to trap them; and the Chinese military general, philosopher and strategist Sun Tzu understood the importance of knowing one’s enemy and one’s own capabilities. From strategy games to professional sports to The Art of War, it’s clear that understanding your enemy is the first step in knowing how to beat them.

In this case, the enemy is a new thrips species, Thrips parvispinus (‘Parvi’). First detected in southern Ontario in 2021/2022, researchers quickly realized that the typical thrips controls, monitoring methods, and even host plants were not the same for Parvi as for western flower thrips (WFT) or onion thrips. So, researchers set out to understand the new foe.