Flea Beetle Control

[cazp]

Already some of my plants are starting to suffer with flea beetles. Last time I grew salad crops in containers they were unusable inside of a week or two.

Can anyone recommend effective methods of ridding them?

Would something like an insecticidal soap work? I also heard that coffee grounds are effective.

[Peas'n'Kews]

Does this help?
Flea beetles on brassicas and allied plants / Royal Horticultural Society

Lots of other get-rid-of-flea-beetle advice available to Google....

[roitelet]

Try the string and jayes fluid method the smell discourages them. Works for me!

[Kleftiwallah]

I'm amazed the R.H.S. didn't tell about this idea.

'Construct' a table tennis bat from offcuts and spread one face with the stickyest grease you can get your hands on, (open gear grease is ideal), slowly pass the bat over your crops and the fleabeetles when alarmed by the passing object jump up and stick to the grease. Easy Peasy.
Cheers, Tony.

[cazp]

Hi

Thanks for the advice and the Link to the RHS site.

At this stage I'm opting for the sticky trap method - and have bought some yellow sticky papers to put up. At leaset I'll have an indication of the scale of the problem this year and may also catch a few. I will also plant some radishes as a decoy.

Jeye's fluid method also sounds promising if above doesn't work. At any rate, will resort to sprays if I really have to.

(I read online that coffee grounds can make the soil acidic so have ruled that one out).