Even after you remove the thrips from your plant, there may still be eggs ready to hatch, making them difficult to get rid of. You’ll then be dealing with an entirely new generation!
The optimum strategy has multiple facets and entails eliminating mature insects as well as preventing eggs from hatching. If you identify the infection early, you should be able to get rid of the thrips and save your plant, even though it might take numerous treatments to entirely eradicate them.
Using Insecticide to Get Rid of Thrips
Insecticide is frequently required to eradicate thrips permanently. This is available for purchase online, at gardening supply stores, or you may build your own!
Follow the dilution instructions on the container of any insecticide you purchase from the shop, erring on the side of over-dilution just to be safe.
Before spraying the entire plant with a pesticide, it’s a good idea to test it on a small leaf or other area of your monstera to be sure there are no unfavorable effects. Prior to applying the pesticide to the entire plant, be careful to wait a full day and then inspect the area you initially checked.
Don’t soak the plant; instead, spray the tops and undersides of the leaves as well as the stems. As needed, repeat this process every 4–7 days until the thrips are gone.
Homemade Insecticide
Although there are other homemade insecticide solutions available, our favorite is a straightforward soap-and-water solution.
Simply combine 1.5 teaspoons of mild liquid soap with a quart of water to create this simple DIY pesticide, then apply right away. Once more, it’s a good idea to test it on a little portion of your monstera to ensure that it won’t scorch or experience any other unfavorable effects.
Apply the spray early in the day or late at night because insecticide is only effective when it is moist. If you apply it during the hottest part of the day, it can dry out before it has a chance to do any major damage to the leaves of your plant.
Until you notice no more thrips and your plant’s condition stabilizes, repeat this procedure every 4–7 days.
Neem Oil
Neem oil is a common remedy for plant pest infestations! You can also mix in a little liquid soap if you follow the dilution instructions on the bottle. After that, spray the plant with the mixture and let it dry. Additionally, this is a great way to prevent insects from ever getting out of control in the first place.
Once more, it wouldn’t hurt to test your combination on a little portion of the plant before spraying the entire thing.
You might want to do this outside (only if your monstera is sheltered from the elements) or in the garage if you can because neem oil does have a slightly odd smell that fades away after it dries. Or think about using our natural pest-removal spray Leaf Armor on your plant.
Applying the spray earlier in the morning or later in the day is preferable to doing so during the warmest, brightest portion of the day because neem oil only effectively kills pests when they are moist (much like insecticide). As a result, the spray doesn’t dry out too rapidly.
Blue, Yellow, or White Sticky Trap
Blue, yellow, and white are colors that thrips are drawn to, therefore you may use this to your advantage and set traps!
These traps are readily available at garden supply stores and online, but you may also construct your own by applying honey (or another sticky substance that will remain sticky) to a piece of blue, yellow, or white paper and sticking it next to your plant. In a pinch, sticky notes also function well!
Lint Roller
It’s not always possible to wait patiently for the thrips to fall into your sticky traps. So you can basically bring the sticky trap to them with a lint roller!
Simply hold a monstera leaf flat in your palm and lightly roll the lint roller over it to remove thrips. All leaves should be examined from the underside as well as the top, and the stems may also need a close inspection.
Introduce Ladybugs
Online-purchased ladybugs will soon find a food source—thrips—and begin to work if you let them go in your garden’s soil. If you have kids, this is very enjoyable to do!
The ladybugs will probably leave your monstera plant and visit your other houseplants, which can be great, as well as other rooms in the house. If you don’t mind having some adorable insect buddies around, ladybugs are perfectly safe, so this could be a fantastic alternative!
Removing Damaged Leaves by Pruning
Sometimes the best line of action is to just clip off the afflicted leaves if a thrips infection is advanced. This will eliminate any eggs that are still in the hatching process as well as any mature thrips that may be clinging to those leaves. By removing damaged leaves, your monstera is also encouraged to focus its energy on mending the remaining leaves and developing new growth.
To achieve this, clean a set of shears or scissors with hot, soapy water or alcohol. Because the sap from your monstera can irritate your skin, you might also wish to wear gloves.
To start, it may be beneficial to use the lint roller technique to get rid of as many thrips off the leaves as you can. Next, carefully clip the stems of the desired leaves. Avoid causing too much leaf movement to avoid scattering insects onto lower leaves or the ground. If your intention with pruning is more for aesthetics and healing than for curing the infestation, you can alternatively just clip off the diseased portions of the leaves.
Consider propagating the healthy leaves and beginning over with a healthy young plant if your infestation is severe and you anticipate losing a lot of leaves.
Prune Thrip-Damaged Plants
Remove any leaves, blossoms, or stems that have been thrip-damaged and place them in a garbage container. To prevent the thrips from spreading if the plant is severely affected, completely separate it from the rest of your plants. The greatest move you can make as a plant parent could be to throw the entire thrip-infested plant into the garbage, depending on how attached you are to the plant. Throwing the plant away is a difficult but effective thrip therapy.
Wash Thrips Off Plants With Water
With a spray from the hose, remove thrips from the leaves of outdoor plants. Pay attention to the areas of the leaves where they congregate. Use a spray bottle to apply a soap-and-water mixture on the foliage of indoor plants. Saturate every area of the infected plant with a mixture of a gallon of water and two teaspoons of dish soap. Although it works to control thrips, it won’t stop them from coming back.
Spray Plants With Neem Oil
A natural pesticide derived from the neem tree is called neem oil. For gardeners, it is essential because, unlike synthetic pesticides, it kills undesirable insects like thrips and white flies without affecting beneficial insects like bees and other pollinators. Neem oil works by blocking the hormones that drive insects to feed and reproduce.
Here is how to use neem oil to get rid of thrips:
- Get rid of the thrips from your plant.
- One gallon of water should contain 4 teaspoons of neem oil and 2 teaspoons of dishwashing soap.
- Spray on the plant’s infected areas.
Neem oil doesn’t instantly kill thrips, so you won’t get to enjoy seeing the pests that destroyed your plant wheeze and pass away. Systematic pest control is provided with neem oil. Neem oil is absorbed by your plant into its tissue, where its components will prevent subsequent insect attempts to consume the plant. It is comparable to a plant vaccine.
Spray Plants With Pyrethrin
A natural thrips-killing pesticide derived from chrysanthemums is called pyrethrin. Pyrethrin must be sprayed on infected plants twice, with a 4-day interval between each application. Concerned with the environment? Use pyrethrin pesticides instead of pyrethroid pesticides, which have synthetic chemicals added to make them more harmful to insects. Pyrethrin pesticides are safer. If pyrethroids enter streams, they can also destroy fish and honey bees. Before you spray, check the label to be sure you’re getting what you expect.
Can thrips cause leaves to regenerate?
Thankfully, your plant should recover unless the infestation spreads. Make sure to keep the diseased plant far from other plants to prevent the infestation from spreading through contact between its leaves. All you have to do is keep up the treatment, check on the plant daily, and remember to wipe the leaves down.
The best course of action in extreme situations, when the thrips have taken complete control, is to completely bag up the plant, seal it off so the thrips can’t escape, and discard it. Even while it is always terrible to lose a plant, it is better to do so than to let the infestation to grow.
Thrips
Thrips are tiny insects that dehydrate plants by sucking moisture from their leaves, which results in browning, discoloration, and dehydration. They appear as clusters of tiny white grubs on the leaves or stems as larvae. Adults resemble lean brown flies.
Thrips can be eliminated in a few different ways. If there are only a few of the damaged leaves, you can entirely prune them to solve the issue. Another well-known natural insecticide is neem oil; it appears frequently on this list. Simply buy some neem oil in its purest form or a neem oil spray and adhere to the instructions on the bottle. Spray to eliminate adults and eggs every few days.
Diatomaceous earth can also be applied to the leaves as an alternative. This particular sort of powdered sedimentary rock has tiny, razor-sharp edges that, when consumed by insects, kill them, while remaining harmless to your plant. (However, purchasing a food grade variety wouldn’t hurt to be extra safe.)
Mealybugs
Scales without a shell are known as mealybugs; we’ll talk more about them later. They remove the juices from the leaves, causing spots and discolouration and leaving behind honeydew, a sticky, transparent goo. Even if you don’t see any actual mealybugs, this honeydew and cottony material on the leaves are indicators of an infection (the females produce this when they lay eggs).
Start by rubbing alcohol-dipping a cotton swab and dabbing any bugs or cotton you notice to get rid of mealybugs. This instantly kills the bugs. Mealybugs prefer to conceal themselves, therefore you should also thoroughly treat your plant with neem oil.
Gnats
Although adult gnats are more bothersome than damaging, the soil-dwelling larvae may munch on your plant.
The simplest technique to get rid of gnats is to remove the top few inches of soil to release the larvae and then put fresh dirt on top. Gnats lay their eggs in the soil. Another nice choice is to repotted your plant if it can handle it. Bacillus thuringiensis, a non-harmful microbe, can also be sprinkled over the soil’s surface.
Spider Mites
Spider mites are a fairly prevalent bug that can nibble on the leaves of your plant and suck out the sap, which results in discolouration.
Spider mites might appear as clusters of tiny brown dots and prefer to reside on the undersides of leaves. Until you realize the dots are moving, it’s simple to mistake these for leaf spotting!
Fortunately, spider mites are rather simple to remove with a water jet. Squirt the grouped bugs off using a kitchen syringe filled with water, give the plant a lukewarm water shower, or hose it off if the weather is warm.
To shield your plant from bacteria, fungus, and insects, we advise using Houseplant Leaf Armor. It performs the same functions as neem oil without the disagreeable smell. Additionally, the Houseplant Leaf Armor cleans and polishes the leaves of your houseplant.
Scale
The scale insects resemble tiny brown lumps. What you’re seeing is actually just the insect’s outer shell; underneath, the genuine bug lurks, sucking juices from the leaf and killing the plant as it does so. They can kill your monstera if they go unchecked.
Picking them off is a good way to get rid of them. Use your fingers, a toothpick, a butterknife, or anything else you choose. Make sure not to cut your plant, though! Neem oil, Houseplant Leaf Armor, or a mild insecticidal detergent like Safer Soap can be sprayed on the plant after you’ve taken what you can out.
Your monstera doesn’t have to end in disaster because of insects! Keep an eye out, take precautions to avoid infestations, and exterminate insects from your monstera as soon as you find an issue. The happiest monstera on the block will belong to you!
Do you still have concerns regarding your monstera? Join our Facebook group to interact with other fans of monstera plants.
How can thrips on houseplants be managed?
Thrips, which have a very small body and are straw-colored with extremely tiny, feathery wings, are a common pest of houseplants. Since they are so little, it may be difficult to see them with the naked eye. However, they can occasionally be distinguished by an active line that moves across the leaf’s veins when it is disturbed. A thrips infestation may also be indicated by blotchy reddish brown discolouration. Since they are no natural predators in areas where people live, they can reproduce asexually and inflict serious harm. Thrips are arguably the most difficult household pest to control of all the regular houseplant pests.
As you check on your plant on a regular basis, be sure to pay close attention to the undersides of the leaves because here is where many of the most frequent houseplant pests live. The leaves are at their most delicate and succulent here, and you can watch suckers like thrips at work.
Thrips acting like thrips. Look at the poop droplet it leaves behind. One method to determine a thrips infection is by these little black patches. Lauren Sottile’s video.
The first step in treating a plant for thrips is to hose it out under the kitchen or shower tap to flush the pests away. Be careful not to let the runoff overwater the land. If moving the plant to a water source is not an option, spritz and wipe each leaf with a spray bottle and microfiber cloth. Use an insecticide afterward, like neem oil. Neem oil is a natural insecticide and leaf shine that has been used on both outdoor and indoor plants for hundreds of years. The best part is that it doesn’t harm animals, birds, or a variety of helpful insects. Neem oil and water should be combined before being sprayed onto the plant. After it has rested for five to ten minutes, wipe the leaves clean.
Neem oil won’t stop major infestations, so a stronger remedy to think about is an insecticidal soap. When the insects are present, fully cover all of the surfaces of the plant with the solution and repeat every 10 days until no longer any insects are visible. Please take note that sunlight mixed with the insecticide might burn a plant, thus insecticide should only be used at night or when the plant is out of direct sunlight.
No of the course of treatment, keep the afflicted plant away from the rest of your collection while it recovers, taking extra care to make sure that none of its leaves touch those of any other plants. To prevent thrips in the future, thoroughly inspect plants before bringing them indoors and try routinely rinsing the leaves with water.