Reducing aesthetic injury or controlling insect populations: dilemma of insecticide use against Cuban laurel thrips (Thysanoptera: Phloeothripidae) in landscape-grown ficus

Aesthetic injury reduction may be the focus of insect management efforts in the urban landscape. However, the practice of integrated pest management must be based on understanding how control efforts affect insect populations. Insecticide applications against Cuban laurel thrips, Gynaikothrips ficorum (Marchal), were made to landscape-grown Ficus microcarpa var. nitida. The number of leaf curls caused by insect feeding and the number of thrips within the curls were followed for 12 wk after treatment. There was a reduction in leaf damage but not a reduction in thrips populations. This, insecticide treatments may improve the aesthetic quality of plants on a short-term basis, but long-term pest management of the thrips populations cannot depend on pesticides alone.