General
It is polyphagous pest having wide range of host plants.
Life cycle and appearance
Gravid female lays about 100 eggs in the youngest plant tissues. Eggs are oval, whitish to yellow and kidney shaped. Nymphs are tiny, slender, fragile and yellowish straw in colour. Adults has heavily fringed wings and grey in colour. Life cycle is short and completed in 15 to 20 days as many as 25 overlapping generations per year. Reproduction is both by sexual and partheno-generic.
Damage symptoms
Nymphs and adults such the sap from tender leaves and growing shoots. Sometimes the buds and flowers are also attacked. The infested tissue turns the colour to silvery to brown or black. The infested leaves start curling and crumbling, ultimately shed whereas buds becomes brittle and drop down. Severe infestation results in deformation, distortion, defoliation, stunting and dwarfing. It causes 25 to 50% yield loss.
How to get rid of chilli thrips
Koppert offers different solutions for biological pest control of chilli thrips.