Abstract

Onion seedlings were transplanted from November to March to study the population dynamics of onion thrips, Thrips
tabaci. There are four transplants in 2001/2002 and five in 2002/2003 seasons. In 2000/2001 season onion plants were
grown in exploratory trials and in 2003/2004, water traps were used to confirm results of the previous experiments.
Results indicate that November transplant had a peak population of onion thrips in late February (176 thrips/plant);
December (416 thrips/plant) and January (608 thrips/plant) transplants peaked in March, and February (148 thrips/plant)
and March (86) transplants had peaks in April. Water traps indicate that the peak population of adult thrips was at the
time of harvest in April, similar to November transplant. The early transplant (November) had peak thrips population at
maturity and middle transplant recorded the peak population middle of the season and late transplant had their peaks
early part of the growing season. Therefore, the findings of this work revealed that onion thrips in Sokoto, Nigeria,
breed from January to May with peak in March.

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