Thrips tabaci
Onion thrips: A Destructive Crop Pest
Welcome to our webpage! Here you will have the opportunity to learn all about Thrips tabaci, more commonly known as the Onion thrip. It is a key insect pest in most onion production areas of the world. They spend the winter protected under plant debris and plant parts. When temperatures get warmer, adults fly to new onion fields, where they begin feeding and destructing. Long-term, sustainable management of Onion thrips includes crop cultural practices, onion varietal resistance, biological control, and insecticide resistance management. However, they are prone to develop resistance to these control measures, especially against insecticides (Utah State University Extension 2008). Learn more about damage and control.
Adults are about 1.5 mm long. Their body is pale yellow to dark
brown or gray in color. Dark blotches may appear on the thorax and
abdomen. Its two pairs of narrow wings are fringed with long hairs.
Their mouthparts are beak-like and their antennae have 7 segments (Utah
State University Extension 2008).
Want to learn more about the characteristics of Onion thrips? Go to
Recognition data of Thrips tabaci
Let's first begin with the Classification
of this organsim!
This project was part of a larger project. If you would like to learn
more about other organisms, visit the
Multiple Organisms
page put on for educational purposes through the University of Wisconsin-
La Crosse.