In apples, western flower thrips causes a white marking called a pansy spot around an oviposition site. Pansy spots typically develop on green-skinned apples such as ‘Granny Smith’. Female thrips, however, oviposit in any cultivar of apple. Red or yellow pigments tend to obscure the white marking. Some cultivars such as ‘Fuji’ can be damaged by oviposition scars if they are too numerous. Females overwinter as adults and are attracted to apples trees during bloom. They begin laying eggs in flower parts such as sepals and stems. When fruit are 6 mm in diameter to about 20 mm, females lay eggs in the skin of fruit. In cherries, adults cause damage with oviposition scars and larvae cause feeding scars. The exact timing of damage in cherries is not known, but probably occurs at petal fall and at straw.
