2 days ago
Country diary 1905: The trouble with thrips
Thrips are a plague to the farmer and a cause of much annoyance to everyone else; they are so very tiny, measuring only about one-twelfth of an inch, that it seems absurd to think that they can damage wheat. Unfortunately it is their small size that makes them so difficult to deal with, and the tiny larvae suck the juices from the growing grain and cause it to shrivel up. Those of us who are not farmers are not much troubled by the male thrip, for it is wingless, but the flying female bumps up against our faces, settles and walks about, unless it is unfortunate enough to fly right into our eyes, when it dies a watery death, much to our discomfort. The thrip has no claws, but its short legs can cause a wonderful amount of irritation for so diminutive creature; if it would only stand still when it settles upon us we should know little about it, but nothing is further from its intentions; it wanders here, there, and everywhere, and wherever it goes it tickles.
Cyclists know the thrip to their sorrow, but even it is not so bad as some of the smaller rove beetles, which, having attempted suicide in an eye, take a dying revenge by discharging a powerful fluid which for a second and sometimes more causes intense agony to the owner of the eye. Beetle and thrip look very much alike without a glass, but the former when it settles for a walk folds its long wings by using its flexible abdomen, and tucks them under its short wing cases; the latter may wriggle its tail but it cannot fold its fringed wings.
