Thrips palmi

IPM strategies for melon thrips resistance management

• Monitoring and economic thresholds
  • Pest populations should be monitored and insecticides only applied, if economic threshold are exceeded.
• Sanitation, removal of volunteer- or alternative host plants
  • Elimination of volunteer plants before sowing or transplant reduces the risk of pests and diseases surviving between crops.
• Physical control.
  • Use of interception, color, or insect behavior. Openings of greenhouses can be covered with red nets, that thrips cannot see.
  • Use of blue or white sticky traps
  • Placing of silver sheets on the ground to prevent recognition of host crop
  • Irradiation of host crops with red light, to prevent recognition of host crop
• Biological control, mainly used in greenhouses
  • The introduction of natural enemies such as parasitic wasps or predators is a common IPM strategy used under glass or in specialty crops
  • Microbial control products based on entomopathogenic fungi can be applied using standard spray equipment
• Host plant resistance
  • For certain crops, varieties are available that are either tolerant or fully resistant toward plant diseased transmitted by Thrips.