In summary, it can be said that broadspectrum insecticide treatments used against citrus thrips pose a serious obstacle to the widespread implementation of integrated pest management strategies in citrus. Let us consider to what degree such manipulations of the environment are possible. For example, citrus thrips eggs are embedded into plant tissue. These eggs appear well protected, and thus, are not very amenable to environmental manipulations. Altering these temperature and humidity conditions does not appear very feasible.
Evidence suggests that lacewings, predatory mites, and other predators feed on thrips larvae.
Thrips pupae have the habit of hiding and are difficult to find. With intensive searching, they can be found in the leaf litter, and uppermost soil layer underneath the tree canopy, or in cracks of the bark in the inner parts of the tree canopy. Modifying the microclimate in the leaf litter and soil, and thus, increasing mortality of the thrips pupae seems possible. For example, soil humidity and temperature will depend on the irrigation schedule, amount of organic material in the soil, and presence or absence of vegetation growing on the orchard floor. However, conditions on the ground will, of course, only directly affect thrips pupae which are present in the soil.