11 Natural Ways to Get rid of Thrips Inside House, Pool, and On Houseplants
Thrips are small, inch-long insects that feed on plants and thrips can destroy an entire crop in days. A serious infestation often means a yield loss of around 50%. Luckily, there are a number of ways to battle these pesky pests.
You can eliminate thrips as well as health hazards to humans by using natural ways to get rid of thrips since they feed on plants and crops.
Damage caused by Thrips
Thrips don’t cause any harm to humans but have the potential to seriously damage crops and plants as they feed on their important parts and nutrients. Crops like cotton, onion, potato, and tobacco are most affected by thrip infestation.
11 Ways Get rid of thrips inside the house naturally?
The following home and natural remedies will help you get rid of thrips and ensure healthy growth of plants:
1. Garlic solution
The solution includes garlic, water, and insecticidal soap. Mix few cloves of garlic in water and then strain it. Later, add a few drops of insecticidal soap and water to the mixture and spray the solution over infected plants.
2. Baking Soda solution
This solution includes backing powder, water, and liquid handwash. Add 5 ml baking powder in five cups of water along with three drops of liquid handwash. Combine the solution by mixing it properly and then spray it over infected plants every week.
3. Soap Water
Yeah, it has been shown that soapy water is an effective thrip-killer. In your house, this is a healthy and natural way to get rid of thrips.
A couple of drops of dish soap with a cup of water is all you need. Pour it into a spray bottle and then immediately spray it onto the thrips.
Since they are so tiny, just to make sure you get them, you can spray the whole plant.
Before using it on the whole thing, you can always test the dish soap on a small part of the plant first.
Some plants are susceptible to insecticidal soap, so allow it to search for damage for about two days. If the plant is all right, spray the whole thing then.
To water down the DIY pesticide and test it again, add more water if you see plant damage. The soap, upon touch, kills thrips.
Re-apply for one month every other day before the thrips are gone. This will take time because there is continuous breeding of thrips.
Can I make insecticidal soap using Dawn?
You can make your own DIY Bug soap using Dawn, but any dish detergent works.
4. Use pyrethrin
Pyrethrin is a widely available brief-term pesticide. You will shop a number of different varieties.
You’re not buying pyrethrin on your own-it comes with several different types of bug spray as an active ingredient. Look for a spray that is all-natural or organic and uses it as directed.
Pyrethrin destroys thrips and, to minimize their numbers, is an effective measure against the house.
5. Sticky traps
To capture thrips, you can purchase or make your own sticky traps at home.
You tie them around the stems or leaves of plants, and they get trapped and die when the thrips walk on them. For plants, traps are easy to set up and secure.
Vote for sticky traps of blue, as the hue blue attracts thrips. Utilize as directed.
To catch thrips in your yard, use sticky traps by sticking them around your house plants.
6. Water hose
To spray off the thrips, use a water hose.
To remove thrips on your houseplants, you can use water., take the plants and spray them with a stream from a strong hose outdoors
The water is going to blow the thrips off and hydrate the plant too. Only spray your plants with a hose if you’re outside.
7. Neem oil
Need Oil is an essential oil that is very effective in controlling pests. On touch, Neem kills thrips and can be purchased from apothecaries.
You just need a few drops per keg of water (1-2 drops). Pour the mixture into a spray bottle and then spray them. They’ll be killed right away.
Some plants are neem-sensitive, so be sure to test it on a single leaf first.
Also, since it can burn the plant, avoid using neem in direct sunlight. If you are outdoors using neem oil, avoid it during daytime hours. Be sure to remove the plant from direct sunlight if you use it indoors.
After you spray with neem, plants also need to be rinsed with water. So take the plant under the hose after about 20 minutes or so and spray it to rinse off the neem oil and the thrips. This is necessary for other pests that eat dead bugs to avoid attracting them.
8. Diatomaceous earth
Thrips can be dehydrated by DE and kill them over time.
You can sprinkle some on top of the plant soil. Thrips that touch the DE will dehydrate their exoskeleton. You can spray it around the oil perimeter and make a ring around the stem of the plant as well.
This will ensure that DE on their exoskeleton is obtained by any thrip that crosses the DE to eat the plant.
At any department store, Diatomaceous Earth can be bought and is healthy in limited amounts.
As it can cause annoyance, you should always keep kids and pets away from it. When handling DE, wear gloves. Wear protective masks and clothes as well.
9. Natural thrip predators
Thrips are eaten by some bugs and you can use them to help you clean up your infestation. Ladybugs are one of the many thrips-eating bugs.
Depending on your situation, there are two ways to go around this.
If you have Outdoor Thrips, Consider attracting your yard to natural predators that feed on thrips.
- How’re you doing this? Search for your region’s native species and see what it takes to bring more of them to your yard.
- Pirate bugs, ladybugs, and lacewings are the most common bugs eating thrips throughout the US.
- In order to help handle the thrip population, you should be able to attract at least one of those common beneficial bugs to your yard.
If you’ve got indoor thrips, For your houseplants, you can actually buy a mini greenhouse.
In order to help “clean up” the thrips issues, you place the plant in the small greenhouse and unleash a bug.
How is this functioning? Just simple. In bulk, you buy ladybugs, lacewings, or pirate bugs.
In the greenhouse, you place your houseplant that has thrips. You then release the predators to the same world found in the container.
The beneficial thrips and their larvae feed over time until there are no more of them left. Your plant is then purged of thrips and washed up.
10. Use essential oils
Most essential oils are organic and by combining a gallon of water and 1-2 drops of oil, you can produce your own thrip killer at home.
There are plenty of options out there that you can choose from, but thrips seem to be successful against neem and peppermint oil. Make the mixture and then pour it into a bottle of spray.
Then spray it directly onto the thrips of your plants. Upon touch, it should destroy them and serve as an organic repellent too.
By adding more drops, do not be afraid to change the oil concentration. Take care and use them as instructed, as with any oil. Any individuals or pets can be vulnerable to such oils. Always have the analysis done.
11. Vacuum
Using a portable vacuum, much like the other methods, can be an organic way to handle thrips.
To dispose of them, just suck them up and put the vacuum in reverse.
In order to kill them, you’ll want to unleash them into a contained bottle or bucket filled with rubbing alcohol.
For this, use a shop vac, as conventional vacuums do not have a reverse function.
How to Get rid of Thrips in the Pool Naturally?
If thrips are present in your swimming pool, getting rid of them can be very difficult. Plus, they bite, which suggests that when you go swimming, you can get bitten.
Thrips can be seen around the edge and perimeter of your pool and on the steps or sun shelf of the pool.
You should start with Fly Tape to get rid of them. Get the blue sticky traps to the places where you see a lot of thrips and stick to them.
Also, consider spraying the region with neem oil as a natural repellent for thrips after they come out from the soil.
Thrips are usually transient and leave after a period of time, note. When they leave, you can use natural repellents, traps, and natural predators to help deal with them.
It is also possible to extract them manually with a cloth. Spray the rubbing alcohol on the cloth and wipe it off. Thrips kill alcohol. As thrips can bite, wear protective gloves and clothing.
How to get rid of thrips on houseplants?
You should regularly inspect your plants and gardens to determine the presence of thrips or any other pests.
In case of any infestation, you can do the following things to get rid of them:
- Lure them by using yellow sticky traps and then remove them
- Stop them from multiplying by using Good Nematodes in the soil
- Insecticides such as Neem oil spray, Azadirachtin, and PFR-97 eliminate thrips without causing any visible damage to them or plants
Conclusion
Thrips cause severe damage to plants and crops by feeding on them, making it important for us to use natural ways to get rid of them.
If you use chemicals to get rid of them, it might result in inedible crops and health problems in anyone who eats that. Whereas, using organic ways would result in healthy growth of plants and won’t disturb the ecosystem as well.
