Pest profile

Sixspotted Thrips

Scolothrips sexmaculatus · Thysanoptera: Thripidae[2]

Not all thrips are pests. The sixspotted thrips eats spider mites and their eggs and is common wherever mites are abundant.[1]

Highly magnified sixspotted thrips, a pale yellowish thrips with dark spots on its folded wings, on a leaf
Highly magnified sixspotted thrips, a pale yellowish thrips with dark spots on its folded wings, on a leaf. Photo: 余世文, public domain (CC0), via iNaturalist

How to identify it

  • Adults and older larvae are about 1/8 inch long and pale yellow to whitish.[1]
  • Each whitish forewing shows three dark spots at rest, six in all, and the wings have long hairlike fringes.[1]
  • Larvae are translucent white to yellowish.[1]

Look-alikes

Look-alikeHow to tell them apart
Pest thripsSix dark wing spots on a pale thrips separate this species from common pest thrips, and it's usually found among mites, often feeding on them.[1]

Where it lives

It occurs on most plants infested with spider mites. At least three Scolothrips species live in California, and two can be told apart only by an expert.[1]

Biology and life cycle

Eggs are laid inside plant tissue; the thrips passes through two larval stages, a prepupa and a pupa.[1]

Egg to adult takes about 10 days in the growing season, with many generations where it's warm and mites are plentiful.[1]

Damage and signs

  • It eats all stages of spider mites, preferring immatures, and favors web-spinning species.[1]
  • Larvae eat about 10 mite eggs, larvae or nymphs a day, and adults about 60 mites a day.[1]

Health risk

UC IPM describes it only as a mite predator and gives no sign of any concern for people.[1]

Control

Prevention

Before treating thrips, check what they're doing: pale thrips with spotted wings feeding among spider mites are allies.[1]

Biological control

It finds prey well even when mites are scarce and needs relatively few to survive.[1]

Common questions

Are the thrips in my spider mite infestation helping?
They may be. Sixspotted thrips are common only where mites are abundant and are often seen feeding on them.[1]
How many mites does it eat?
Adults can eat about 60 mites a day, and larvae about 10.[1]

Sources

  1. University of California Statewide IPM Program, “Sixspotted Thrips (Natural Enemies Gallery).” ipm.ucanr.edu/natural-enemies/sixspotted-thrips/ (accessed 2026-10-06)
  2. iNaturalist, “Scolothrips sexmaculatus taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/308423 (accessed 2026-10-06)

Updated 2026-10-14. Built from sourced records. Spot an error? Tell us.