 Hi everybody, let's talk about thrips. The worst thing about thrips is that they're very very tiny and because of this they're very hard to spot. The adults are long and skinny and they're usually black and you can find them on top of the leaves or at the bottom of the leaves. Another thing about thrips is that the adults can actually fly. In my experience I haven't seen them flying but they can fly. I think it is because they're very tiny so it is hard to see them in the air. Now the larva is even tinier but you will be able to see them in leaves that are darker because the larva looks like white small dots and if you touch them they will move. Unfortunately our monstera got attacked by thrips and I can tell you I found larva on top of the leaf at the bottom of the leaf and also on the stem so when checking for thrips I recommend that you always check the whole plant because they can be at any location. Talking about where they can be based on my research and my experience I've seen that thrips really love new growths so if you have new leaves on your plant I would recommend that you also check those and check really thoroughly because for example with our monstera you know the monstera has new leaves and they come out rolled up so the thrips can actually be inside of that roll so it's really important that we really get in there and check especially with the new leaves common symptoms with thrips include the discoloration of the leaves or white and silvery streaks since they suck this up out of the leaf they're basically sucking out the life of the leaf so if the problem gets worse you will see that your leaf will have brown edges or brown spots this will feel dry and they will lose the color with our monstera we had yellowing of the leaves and then it will become brown. A very important fact about thrips is that they reproduce as sexually this means that they don't need a partner to reproduce which is pretty bad because that means that they can reproduce even faster so the way that it works is that adults lay eggs this eggs hatch and become larvae and the larvae start eating the leaves right away remember you can find larvae on the leaf so on top of the leaf and the back of the leaf but also on the stem so this larvae will also be sucking the sap out of the stem then they become adults and they lay more eggs this whole cycle from larvae to becoming an adult usually lasts two weeks which is a pretty fast growth cycle and a thrip can stay alive for one month this is important to know because in one plant you can have all generations of a thrip the eggs the larvae and the adults so when we're treating it it's good to think about this so we know how to target these specific groups so as I said thrips are sucking the sap out of the plant and therefore they're sucking the life out of your plant they reproduce quickly and they can be pretty damaging so as soon as you see a thrip on your plant I strongly recommend that you start treating it so don't worry we're gonna get to the treatments right now in my experience and based on what I have seen with other indoor gardeners thrips are pretty difficult to get rid of but it is possible if the problem is not too big you can go for natural treatment and the first thing that I would recommend is that you check the whole plant and the plants that are around this plant make sure that the thrips have not attacked your other plants and then once you identify the plants that have been attacked by the thrips separate them from the rest of your collection so you can control the problem so the first thing that you need to do is to shower the plant with high pressure water this is to really get as many thrips off the plant as possible now if you do this method make sure that the water is not too cold or too hot and try to prevent the water from going to the soil we don't want to overwater our plant it is recommended that you repeat this every few days or so now if you're like me and you had the thrips in a big plant like our monstera I couldn't move it from the place where it was so I started with the second method and this was a combination of castile soap water and neem oil so every few days or so I would spray my plant all the leaves from the top and the bottom and also the stems and I would clean it thoroughly remember this is every few days or so if the problem is not so big this can be enough however with us this was not enough so on top of this every two weeks or so I would clean my plant with diluted alcohol and the combination of the castile soap neem oil and the diluted alcohol every two weeks helped me to get rid of many of the thrips however it was still not enough so I had to get even stronger treatment after trying the natural methods and not being successful I turned to this product the brand is to the floor and it is sold here in Germany these are chalky sticks that you stick in the soil and they work as fertilizer as well as an insecticide so the way that they work is that you put them in the soil and you water the plant now I gotta say that when I put those sticks I still was cleaning the leaves and the stem every week just to make sure and prevent that the infestation would go bigger and I can tell you that about two weeks from sticking those in the soil I stopped seeing thrips I really like the method because you just have to stick it in the soil and then it does its work every time you water your plant the roots are absorbing this substance but then when the thrips are trying to suck the sap out of the leaf or the plant they suck this substance and this kills them I can tell you that I haven't seen a thrip in a month or so and this is so cool because I have been dealing with this for a long time so if I see a thrip this is gonna be my go-to solution however I always say that prevention is key so try to check your plants every week from the top of the leaf the back of the leaf and the stem and always clean them I'm using a solution that includes peppermint essential oil which is a great preventive measure against pests so I would also recommend that if you have used any other methods or products against thrips and they have worked make sure to comment below I can assure you that many people will appreciate it and as always I will see you in the next one okay ciao