I'm jealous. :(

They vary from year to year because different weathers favor the reproductive rate of thrips over their predators or vice versa. In terms of the calendar year, we haven't yet reached the period when thrips usually peak here (June), but who knows how the forward spring will affect thrips. The roses are at June stage.

Spring was early BUT (and this is the biggie) grasses are later. Most years, in my area, Mothers Day is the date for the first cutting of hay. This year, the hay is short and late and the seeds are no where near ready for cutting.

Late hay is late maturing grasses. Thrips love grasses. Now to watch for when the predaceous thrips emerge. They are the good guys and they come along in great numbers when their food source (other thrips) populations have surged

The thrips are over on this side of the mountains. The past month they have just about destroyed all the blooms, including the reds and dark colors. I'm hoping their cycle is winding down.

Saw my first fire fly last week :)

I've learned never to say things like that. It's like asking for the skies to open up and trillions of thrips to descend on your roses.

I haven't seen any yet but then I don't have many blooms open yet either. Besides, I'm just fine with it being a light year!

For this spring's flush, I religiously sprayed Conserve every week and used Avid on the buds. (The break every 3 weeks that Conserve recommends never worked.) This seemed to work for the majority of my spring flush. Many flowers had thrips in them, but they were still "cuttable" with an additional shot of Avid. I couldn't keep it up, though, and slacked off toward the end. Sure enough, about a half-dozen roses had buds that never opened and went crispy on the stems.

My Elina reaches 8 feet every season with flushes averaging several dozen blooms each time - huge, fist-size blooms. Unfortunately, the number of blooms that I've been able to enjoy per season as exhibition-clean can be counted on one hand. I hate these d*mn thrips!

I bought some of the new Naturalis stuff from Rosemania and will let you all know how that works. The handling has me very concerned, though. Rosemania even shipped it with a chemical cold pack. :o

Robbie says chilli thrips have reached his area in Nashville. I guess things will get worse before they get better.

They're all here. lol

Nah, there ALL over here.