Tiny bugs are making a mess of Anchorage flower gardens

The culprit? Thrips.

They aren't new. But this year, for reasons that remain a mystery, their numbers have surged to records highs. And it might be too late to kill them. Call it thrips-pocalypse.

The little black bugs are invading greenhouses and gardens across Southcentral and Southeast Alaska, experts and gardeners say. They're riding inside on cut flowers, peppering tablecloths around flower arrangements. They're munching on dahlias and peonies and lettuce.

"They are literally on everything," said Chris Cables, who spends a lot of time in her grandmother's garden in the Valley. "They are on the bushes and anything with a bloom."

Michele Hebert, an agriculture agent at the Cooperative Extension Service said the thrips population is at an unprecedented high, the worst she's seen in 20 years. The bugs feed on pollen, so flowers are usually their favorite target, but this summer she's seen them go for vegetables too.

Eating pollen might seem harmless. Bees do it. But think again. The thrips devour the surface of the petals of flowers and vegetables, making them look sickly and brown and creating a perfect template for disease to take hold, said Michael Rasy, pest management specialist for the Cooperative Extension.

Experts don't know why they are here in such large numbers. But there's no sign the thrips are slowing down.

Every summer, Anchorage has thrips in small numbers that aren't noticeable, Hebert said. She guesses this year's thrips infestation has to do with recent mild winters, which may have allowed the bugs to grow in larger numbers than usual.

The worst part? Once they move in, they are really hard to get rid of.

Lisa Withers, an employee at Bell's Nursery in Anchorage, said the nursery has been flooded with people wanting to get rid of their thrips. The nursery sold lots of products--various traps and sprays-- to help get rid of them, but nothing is working. People keep coming back. The nursery has the pests too, she said.

"We've been getting calls like you wouldn't believe," Withers said. "We're kind of past the time to treat for them. They are out of control everywhere."

And they are out of control -- everywhere but city gardens.

Mary Susan Goocey, horticulture supervisor for the Municipality of Anchorage, said the gardeners who tend to the city's plants haven't had any problems with thrips. She doesn't know why. She thinks maybe it's because the municipality doesn't have as many plants that thrips like to munch on. Or maybe it's because the gardens are weeded, fertilized and watered regularly by professional gardeners, making plants healthy and resistant to thrips.

It seems nobody knows for sure what to do about the pesky bugs. For many gardeners, they've already eaten the heart out of a short blooming season.

"We've definitely coined it the year of the thrips," Rasy said.

Find Kaylin Bettinger online at adn.com/contact/kbettinger or call her at 257-4349.