Both virus and vector need to be targeted in control programs. A thrips completes its life cycle in about 10 days. Eggs are laid in the leaf. Larvae hatch in about three days and immediately begin to feed, thereby picking up the virus. After four days, they pupate in the soil, and in a little over three days, the pupae become adults.
Adults feed and transmit the virus.
Only larvae pick up the virus and only adults transmit it. Adults can transmit the virus within 30 minutes of feeding. The amount of time between thrips feeding and the appearance of symptoms varies. It is host and temperature dependent. Symptom expression may occur in less than one week in 'Calypso' petunia and within five days in gloxinia.