Rabbit Season, Thrips Season, Rabbit Season....

[OzoneNY]

I hate thrips. I really really hate these vile little parasites. I got them again despite all the precautions. My tomato plants are currently not sick but if history repeats, I will lose my tomato patch again before I get any useful fruit.

[imp]

What do you use to get rid of the thrips?

[heirloomtomaguy]

Ozone i too have thrips but last year i alternated weekly between dusting my garden with Diatomaceous Earth and Spinosad. It pretty much eliminated every bug the even looked at my garden. I lost zero plants and had the healthiest garden i have ever had. I also pruned to single stem and kept up with that very well which gave the plants much more room to breath and much more room to not touch each other.

[BigVanVader]

I second Spinosad, it solved my issue after 2 sprayings.

[OzoneNY]

Spinosad and spray the plant and underside of foliage? Soil too?

[MissS]

I got home from work and the rabbits were at it. Here we go with another new season of baby bunnies to deal with.

[tryno12]

i hate those little suckers! last year they ate an entire flat of 10 different variety tom plants just before i was going to plant - after a Tom matures a bit they seem to leave them alone - thank god!!
here in central Indy i counted 6 or 7 generations!.............. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[tryno12]

how do you know if you have them?

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by MissS

I got home from work and the rabbits were at it. Here we go with another new season of baby bunnies to deal with.

I have never seen rabbits be interested in tomato plants. They loved carrots, lettuce, fenugreek.

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by OzoneNY

Spinosad and spray the plant and underside of foliage? Soil too?

Pretty much, mine were in the coldframe so I drenched everything in spray.

[gssgarden]

Never heard of Spinosad...what makes it different?

Greg

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by gssgarden

Never heard of Spinosad...what makes it different?

Greg

It works great on thrips, aphids, and numetous other pests as well as caterpillars. It is a great Organic alternative to many of the bug sprays floating around out there and it works.

[MissS]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

I have never seen rabbits be interested in tomato plants. They loved carrots, lettuce, fenugreek.

Every year I have baby bunnies eating my tomatoes. Sometimes they take a taste of the young plants which of course kills the plants. The later season babies eat the tomatoes. They will even reach as high as they can to nibble on them.

I have a wonderful pet rabbit too. He lives in the house and he enjoys tasting a fresh picked tomato when it is offered.

[imp]

Originally Posted by MissS

I got home from work and the rabbits were at it. Here we go with another new season of baby bunnies to deal with.

Just think of them as an easy and fast renewable food source!

[VC Scott]

Originally Posted by tryno12

how do you know if you have them?

Take a sheet of white paper to the tomato patch. Bend over a flowering branch and tap the flowers on the white paper. If you see tiny dark speck on the white paper that start to move after a second or two, you have thrips.

Spinosad does take care of thrips. My problem using spinosad is that it seems to kill off the natural enemy of tomato russet mites. Whenever I use spinosad, I end up with a tomato russet mite invasion.