Garden Q&A: Thrips can cause discoloring and other problems for rosebuds

By Tom Bruton
What is making my rosebuds have brown petal edges? The buds do not open.
Thrips are probably the culprit. These are tiny insects that crawl under the petal layers of the bud and feed on the tender tissue located there. It is difficult to control thrips because contact insecticidal sprays cannot penetrate the bud and reach the insect. Systemic insecticides can offer some control. Usually, damage is mild enough to be tolerated. However, if severe, the best course of action may be to remove and destroy all affected buds. Thrips also affect gladiolus and other flowers.
Thrips' natural enemies include predators, parasites, and pathogens. Minute pirate bugs such as the insidious flower bug (Orius insidiosus) are very effective predators of thrips in the flowers of many plant species. These predators occur naturally in the landscape throughout the South. Other important predators of thrips include lacewings, syrphid flies, mirid bugs, predatory thrips, and predatory mites

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