Tobacco thrips, Frankliniella fusca, were excluded from flue-cured tobacco plots using either field cages or multiple applications of acephate to examine their impact on the incidence of tomato spotted wilt tospovirus. These vectors were excluded for either 2, 4, or 6 weeks after transplanting. Tobacco covered with thrips exclusion cages for 6 weeks had an overall mean (four year average) of 12.5% spotted wilt compared to 43.6% in the uncaged tobacco. When exclusion cages remained on tobacco for 2 and 4 weeks after transplanting, the incidence of spotted wilt was 29.2% and 22.9%, respectively. Similar results were obtained with weekly acephate applications. The plots treated with acephate for 6 weeks (13.6%) had lower incidence of spotted wilt than in the untreated plots (25.1%). These results indicate that the early-season infestations of thrips, during the first 6 weeks after transplanting, are the most important to vectoring tomato spotted wilt in flue-cured tobacco in Georgia.