• Worldwide distribution. On tomato, capsicum (see Fact Sheet no. 106), melon, onion (see Fact Sheet no. 117), and many other crops. An important pest.
• Thrips are small insects, living within the buds of leaves and fruit, sucking the sap; leaves become brown on the underside, and fruit show silver scars. Black faecal specks are common.
• Eggplant, tomato, melon, onion, and many other hosts are attacked, as well as weeds.
• Natural enemies: predatory thrips prey on plant-eating thrips, and there are other predators.
• Cultural control: avoid over-lapping crops; rotate crops; grow yard-long beans between rows to stop spread; destroy weeds; burn, or bury crop remains after harvest.
• Chemical control: PDPs: derris, chilli, or neem; or soap, horticultural or white oils; use the biopesticide, spinosad. Alternatively, synthetic pyrethroids, but they are likely to kill natural enemies.

Thrips are named after the plants that they live on, e.g., bean thrips, chilli thrips, western flower thrips, melon thrips, onion thrips, tobacco thrips. Some species are predators.

A number of thrips species (e.g., Thrips and Gynaikothrips species) have been identified as pests of vegetables, flowers and trees in Pacific island countries. There are many endemic species (Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea), and also those that are introdused.