Hello all! Wondering if anyone knows what these spots on my pea plant leaves could be. It is not mildew, they do not wipe off, it seems like spots of dried leaf, as if the leaves have dried up in those spots. The spots are in almost all the leaves, except the new growth at the top of the plant. The plant seems otherwise healthy and is growing and has 3 pea shoots so far and another 2 flowers.
I think that look like thrips damage, and maybe you could cut off anything that is badly damaged, and spray your plants with soapy water, possibly neem oil would also help. Clean up any material you take from the plants to watch out for eggs. The other thing you can do without using poisons is hang some sticky patches above the plants to catch the insects. I think you can get blue ones too.
Some kind of bug. Look carefully. Sometimes these bugs move in, chomp away & then move off. You could try insecticidal soap (buy it or make your own) if you see damage on the new leaves.
Thank you, all! Upon closer inspection, I did see extremely tiny black bugs, which I think are thrips! I didn’t even notice them before, they are so tiny! I sprayed with a soap/water spray and wiped them all away. Do they live in the soil? I’m wondering if I should treat the soil somehow, or just go out there everyday to check and spray and wipe away.
Please send a foto of the bugs first. Perhaps someone will recognise them. Treating soil is not something that I would do, this could disturb the normal flora. You know that soil is a fragile medium.
Adult thrips are black and very tiny. Mrs Thrip doesn't need a mate to provide eggs that turn into loads of baby thrips, and she gets on with this job just as soon as the weather starts warming up. Through the summer months all the activity will be above ground, so worrying about the pupation period in the winter time is pointless at the moment. Keeping the plants nice and clean and tidy and cleaning up any loose debris will help a great deal. Watch out for eggs, under leaves, in new shoots, or on stems and wipe them off if you find them. The soapy spray will help by suffocating them, and neem oil will interrupt their breeding cycle. These are safe things to use as weapons, and far better than resorting to poisons. Just as a matter of interest, another tool in your clever box could be to adopt some companion planting tactics. Thrips are, like several other pests, are not fond of Marigolds, or Lavender, Basil, Rosemary, Mint or Garlic, so planting these near plants prone to infestation will help to deter the baddies.
these bugs are so tiny, I couldn’t even focus in with my camera phone. That tiny black spot on the leaf is the bug! I sprayed with soapy water and then wiped all the leaves down as well. There were only about 3 that I saw when I got home from work today, as compared to about 25 from this morning. So, I will check it everyday, now that I know what I am looking for! Thank you for your help!
You are very welcome. Incidentally, I checked the situation with the sticky traps, and it seems it IS the blue traps that are best for thrips as they seem to prefer that colour. They are quite easy to find, and they do help.
I believe the other common name for thrips is ''thunder bugs'' I have found these on the inside of picture glass - heaven only knows how they manage to find their way in there????
