Chili Thrips are much worse than regular thrips. They can cause total defoliation of a rose, they are not easily controlled by pesticides, they reproduce quickly, they can live on many different host plants, and they can cause huge damages to agricultural crops.
Many people have never heard of them; that's also bad. The initial symptoms on roses resemble early stages of PM, when the leaves are just a little bit contorted. They then get much worse.
At present, the range is south Florida and Harris County Texas (the Harris County is from a recent Texas A&M site) Texas is very worried about chili thrips because of what they could do to agriculture.
The sites linked below are phenomenal. Lots of pictures of what the problems look like on roses, since in some places the chili thrips were first noticed on roses.
Also you'll see on one site two maps that show theoretical survival zone...delimited by cold winter temperatures. It includes all three states along the Pacific, and a zone around the Gulf of Mexico and going up to the SC/NC border with a small blip on one of the necks protected by the barrier islands in NC.

These sites include the illustrations used in powerpoint presentations and we are lucky to have these to educate us.

Here is a link that might be useful: a page with links to sites with many pictures

Thanks Ann. That is scary stuff. I guess I am relieved that they stay out of my area based on temperature but this is a pest that cannot be allowed to spread. I hope they can find something to control this tiny beast.

I'm scared already! Our local rose society has warned that these nasties have been spotted in our area, though so far I haven't had to deal with them. Does anyone know if they have any natural predators that could be used to control them?