Wanna take a shot at IDing this?? Spreading fast...

[hasshoes]

In the third pic I do see two little green guys that look like the internet pics of thrips.

It does make sense as RandyG said that thrips could be shipped up north with plants. After all, it hasn't been cold here this spring, so anyone hitching a ride wouldn't die.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by RandyG

The damage to the leaves is from feeding by western flower thrips, which also transmit TSWV. This species of thrips is becoming an increasing problem in many areas and was spread several years ago through shipments of greenhouse grown potted plants and bedding plants throughout the country. The small black spots on the leaves around the feed areas is frass from the thrips. Western flower thrips feed on fruit in addition to the foliage and get inside the flowers. If you hold a white piece of paper under a flower cluster and tap the cluster, you will dislodge the thrips and can see the larvae crawling around on the paper. Feeding on fruits results in a light area (hard to see) on the skin on green fruit. When the fruit ripen, the flesh beneath the thrips feeding area remains white and the white showing through the yellow skin color produces small areas of gold fleck on the fruit shoulders. Where one fruit rests against another, the thrips hide in that area and feed in a circle to produce a gold ring pattern on the fruit.The also hide under the sepals and sometimes you see a gold area at the stem when you remove the stem from the fruit. Transmission of TSWV depends on the immature thrips picking up th virus from an infected host plant and transmitting it to the tomato plant when the adult thrips first land on the tomato plant and starts feeding. Incidence in northern areas may come from the plants becoming infested in the greenhouse when grown along side other plants already infested.

Thanks so much for your expertise.

I knew the two main thrips associated with TSWV but it looks like you're suggesting that the area of possible TSWV has now moved north, at least to PA in this case.

In all my years of growing tomatoes in upstate NY I've never had a thrip problem, but perhaps your post also suggests that if shipped in plants carried the Western Thrip that it could be almost anywhere now.I know I could look it up but you're so handy, , is it possible for the thrips to overwinter or is it usually new infections each season?

From hearing Craig in Raleigh and Lee and others in NC it seems that some years TSWV is bad and other years none at all.

[twistingtendril]

Tomatovator, I spy about a dozen thrips in the third picture. Sorry. They were my first tomato pest this year, in spring, on new plants, and I was really aggravated at how they made the perfect, new, fresh tomato leaves less than perfect. I just used insecticidal soap, and they were mostly gone within a week or so, but I don't know if their disappearance was caused by the soap or just coincidental.

[Tomatovator]

Thanks for all the replies. Randy I think you're correct. I'll deal with these thrips today.