They are commonly found on many weeds and flowers. They feed by rasping off the outer layer of leaves and sucking out the juices. Thrips populations have been especially large this year, in part because of the dry weather. Populations build up on many weed and grain crop hosts in the spring and move to new hosts, such as soybean, peanut and cotton seedlings, as old hosts dry down. When conditions are dry, weed and grain hosts dry down quickly which drives adults in large numbers to new hosts.
Adults fly into fields, feed, mate, and lay eggs that hatch into larvae.
This large larval population does the most damage to seedlings. Several species can be involved, but all do about the same amount of damage. This early season damage is normally not a problem, however, during dry weather when populations are high, thrips damage, along with drought effects, can severely stunt plant growth or occasionally kill plants. On seedling plants thrips may be found on the upper and lower leaf surfaces as well as in unfolded leaves. Thrips problems are always accompanied by crinkled, deformed leaves which often have a silvery appearance.