Flea beetle ?

[Marb67]

I have had the usual symptoms of plant damage on just about every plant and veg I am growing. I have noticed a small, amber flea type insect on the underside of leaves. I have also been bitten by them from time to time. I don't have any to hand to photograph but pics of flea beetles online are usually black which are not the same as mine. Even under fine insect mesh it has managed to get among crops How can I prevent this next year ?

Thanks.

[PyreneesPlot]

Almost impossible. Sorry.

I have black ones, black ones with gold stripes and larger black ones. I have never seen amber coloured ones and they are always in the heart of the plant, on top of, and under the leaves, eating the most tender bits.

They seem to get in under any mesh, however fine (I used old sheets once) and however sealed at the bottom. I've not had any radishes after June this year and have only one lot of pak choi which has made it beyond the planting-out stage. I sow everything bar radishes in modules and plant out when I hope they are big enough to withstand attack. I assume I'll lose at least half. Flea beetles will destroy a row of just emerged radish seedlings in a morning.

They are the only pest I spray, carefully and reluctantly.

They thrive in hot dry conditions so probably multiplied in the July heatwave.

[Marb67]

Well that's depressing with all the other pests I have crammed in my small walled garden. It's bad enough coping with damping off on nearly all my new seedlings.

[Marb67]

Wait a minute, this looks hopeful. There is a lot to be said for garlic spray :-)

Natural Methods for Controlling Flea Beetles in Your Garden - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

[PyreneesPlot]

I'm going to be garlic-ing the slugs next year so it looks as though the FBs are going to be sprayed, too. We can compare and contrast results!

I tried using a trap crop. Could be better named a breeding ground!!

[mothhawk]

Thanks for that link Marb67. For the first time I've managed to grow some decent beetroot, and practically overnight their leaves have been shredded by flea beetles. They look like someone's fired a shotgun at them at close range!

I grow mint and catnip, so I'll try a tea concoction see if it works. Of course, instead of FB's I may end up with the entire neighbourhood cat population rolling on them instead

[datz]

In adjacent rows they decimated my turnips but ignored the beetroot. Strange .... I'll try a garlic spray next year and see if that slows them down a bit.