I expected to see a bump in tobacco thrips numbers last week after several days of drier weather, but it was not to be. Nevertheless, we are seeing thrips and thrips damage on volunteer and some early planted peanut. A model for forecasting thrips dispersal developed at North Carolina State University was predicting that a flight of 4th generation of tobacco thrips would begin at the end of last week in the Tifton area. We will see if that turns out to be accurate when we check our traps at the end of this week.
Other thrips species (that are not pests of peanut) have been very abundant on traps for several weeks now with numbers per trap ranging from 0 to over 500.
These data are being provided for informational purposes only and may not be representative of thrips dispersal at your location. Peanut fields should be scouted regularly to quantify actual thrips populations.
If you have questions about thrips or thrips management please contact your local county Extension agent.
