what are thrips?
An adult, egg, and two larvae of Cuban laurel thrips. Euseius predatory mite attacking thrips. Greenhouse thrips larvae (yellow) with black pupae and adult of the Thripobius parasitic wasp. Thrips, order Thysanoptera, are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings. They feed by puncturing the epidermal (outer) layer of host tissue and sucking out the cell contents, which results in stippling, discolored flecking, or silvering of the leaf surface.