Thrips n. (Zool.) Any one of numerous small species of Thysanoptera, especially those which attack useful plants, as the grain thrips (Thrips cerealium). Note: The term is also popularly applied to various other small injurious insects.
... planting them borders with s'rubs, as is now a delight to the human eye; and I've walked that garden hundreds o' nights with a lanthorn in search o' slugs, as comes out o' they damp meadows in in counted millions; and I've had my cares in thrips and red spider and green fly, without saying a word about scale and them other blights as never had no name. But never in my life—never in all my born days—never since I was first made a gardener, have I suffered anythink like as I've suffered ... — Quicksilver - The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel • George Manville Fenn
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