Cuban Laurel Thrip?!?! Disgusting!!!

jbrough42

New Member
My girlfirend and I just spent and hour and a half tediously combing through and pruning our veiled chameleon's Benjamin Ficus. The reason? I found a cluster of small (roughly flea sized) bugs on one of the leaves.

After some impressive Google-fu by my girlfriend we identified the tiny pests as Cuban Laurel Thrips (Gynaikothrips ficorum). What is this you ask?

Let me quench your thirst for knowledge...

The Cuban Laurel Thrip is an insect that almost exclusively attacks the Benjamin ficus and a couple of its close relatives. They are small enough that they are very easy to miss if you are looking in your cham's enclosure (especially when your watching your little guy or gal and not looking for bugs). They lay their eggs along the central rib of the leaf and the larvae eat the leaf upon hatching. The infected leaves will be more yellow-green in color than normal and deformed (curling in towards the central rib). The leaves will also have purplish-red speckles all over it.

As far as our research has shown they are not a threat to the chameleon or other pets as they are only really interested in the ficus.

There are a few pesticides that are labled for it (obviously not the ideal choice for a plant in a cham enclosure). They can also be eradicated by tediously pruning away ALL of the infected leaves and continuously looking for and immediately pruning any possibly infected leaves. I hope this may help some folks with early detection of any possible infestations.

The first two pictures are images of infected leaves.

The next image is the best close-up that I could capture of one of them.

The last picture is a heavily infected leaf that I am spreading open. Inside you can see eggs, larae, and adults.
 

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Thanks for the information..

I have been bitten by those little guys.. Never knew where they came from but I have 5 ficus outside..
 
Ah! Gives me the heebie jeebies. Mostly what I am switching away from live plants in all my cages. Although people do need to be aware the Chams can eat fake plants and it causes many problems. If a Cham is properly taken care of and on a good diet/feeding schedule they Shouldn't eat the leaves though
 
Ah! Gives me the heebie jeebies. Mostly what I am switching away from live plants in all my cages. Although people do need to be aware the Chams can eat fake plants and it causes many problems. If a Cham is properly taken care of and on a good diet/feeding schedule they Shouldn't eat the leaves though

I don't blame you! After dealing with these little pests, I'm a bit hesitant to keep this ficus at all... or bring any new ones into my house. I'm thinking a switch to umbrella tree may be in order.
 
Did you scrub the plant with soap etc and change the soil before you put it in the cage?? I have 3 plants in my cage! This is awful... if this happened even after you cleaned your plant then I'm taking mine OUT!
 
Did you scrub the plant with soap etc and change the soil before you put it in the cage?? I have 3 plants in my cage! This is awful... if this happened even after you cleaned your plant then I'm taking mine OUT!

Not only was the plant properly washed and repotted after it was purchased, but just a week or two ago we completely washed and repotted it again while doing a full enclosure cleaning.

We're not sure how long they have been there... could have been from the nursery months ago or could've been something that latched on while cleaning it outdoors.

We've seen the yellow curled leaves before, but they were always at the top so we contributed it to the heat lamp killing them. Turns out the bugs are attracted to heat and therefore the infected leaves will frequently be in the hottest part of the cage
 
:eek: Thanks for replying! Out goes my ficus. Is it only ficus plants that are affected by these fowl critters?
 
:eek: Thanks for replying! Out goes my ficus. Is it only ficus plants that are affected by these fowl critters?

According to the research I did on them they only affect a few specific species of ficus. I have a pothos heavily intertwined with my ficus and although there were hundreds of these things hiding in the ficus leaves, we only found a few little stragglers on the pothos... and none of the pothos leaves were infected.
 
According to the research I did on them they only affect a few specific species of ficus. I have a pothos heavily intertwined with my ficus and although there were hundreds of these things hiding in the ficus leaves, we only found a few little stragglers on the pothos... and none of the pothos leaves were infected.

That's so good to know, phew! I'll stay clear of ficus from now on. :D
 
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