Chilli Thrips are an exotic pest that entered the US in 2005 and have established huge populations in Florida and are now being identified in Texas and Georgia. Other states are now beginning to submit samples of suspect plants to researchers so it is believed that the range of the plant is expanding through the Southern US. I have been instrumental in getting Houston's population identified and treated and am helping the National Chilli Thrips Task Force with the educational effort.

Chilli Thrips Known Host Plants

Chilli Thrips Management

People I am coming in contact with who have chilli thrips in the landscape express the knee-jerk reaction "I'll just dig up the roses and plant something else". What they do not understand is that chilli thrips have more than 50 known host plants (roses are just one) and all of the hosts grow in the US. Host plants include food crops,
ornamental plants, herbs, trees and shrubs. Eliminating roses is not the answer because we see pest colonies simply moving from one host to another in regions where colonies are established.

Chilli thrips damage manifests itself in 2 fashions:

1. unusual and distinct symptoms
2. symptoms that mirror herbicide damage and chemical burns.

A large percentage of the more than 3,000 rose plants I have inspected in the last 2 months were initially misdiagnosed by nurserymen, master gardeners, rose society members or plant diagnostic labs. When the controls recommended by those misdiagnosing the problem did not work, I got called in and saw that the damage was related to chilli thrips, got the specimens verified by experts on chilli thrips and the correct controls recommended. So very few people are familiar with chilli thrips that the lack of education is as damaging as the pest itself.