Flea Beetle. The B@#*&%$!

[1Bee]

Flea beetle. Non-chemical control ideas?

I've tried the sticky piece of cardboard idea, which just left a lot of radishes and pak choi with sticky leaves. The darned beetles seem to jump downwards, away from the sticky cardboard.

What can I do to discourage them? What sort of habitat do they like? Any predators?

All help gratefully received. My brassicas (and you've now idea how happy it makes me just being able to say, "my brassicas") are fine, but the rocket, radish and pak choi are more hole than leaf. Still edible, because I'm not fussy about looks, but still. I was just dealing with it on a "put up with it basis" till they destroyed my latest sowing of an oriental veg.

Ta.

[Greenleaves]

Covering seedling plants with insect proof netting (e.g. Enviromesh) will reduce damage by excluding the adult beetles, if you use sticky traps try orange or yellow

[Nicos]

you could try dusting the leaves with Diatomaceous earth to control the number of feeding adults.
It works for lice etc with chooks????
Just a thought.

It's really a matter of stopping the life cycle- particularly stopping the adults from over wintering in the soil...then stopping them from laying eggs in the soil directly beneath the plants.
I've heard peeps talking about planting through memranes or putting cuffs around each plant so they can't get to the soil and pupate. Never tried it though myself.

[Nicos]

oh- and nematodes help- but they are pretty expensive.

[roitelet]

In the past when you could still get the smelly j***s fluid I used to keep them off by soaking some soft cord in it and suspending it above the rows. Never had a problem then, but now............ So if you can find something with a persistent smell it might be worth trying it.

[Nicos]

Just found this site...

https://www.ghorganics.com/page9.html

got some interesting tips in it!

[Sharpy]

Garlic, chilli and a bit of washing up liquid. Although it never totally cleared it up, did go some way in slowing them down. But don`t use it on seedlings, like some idiot did.

[alldigging]

you could try dusting the leaves with Diatomaceous earth to control the number of feeding adults.
It works for lice etc with chooks????
Just a thought.

It's really a matter of stopping the life cycle- particularly stopping the adults from over wintering in the soil...then stopping them from laying eggs in the soil directly beneath the plants.
I've heard peeps talking about planting through memranes or putting cuffs around each plant so they can't get to the soil and pupate. Never tried it though myself.

Won't that kill ladybirds and other good bugs too?

[Jay-ell]

Mint is supposed to be a deterrent, try scattering mint leaves about the place and keep refreshing them.

Seemed to work for me when my brassicas were being munched by them and I started scattering my pennyroyal clippings.

[1Bee]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I think next year I'll try netting some pak choi (but I'm not sure how that's supposed to work when they breed in the soil??), sowing lots of radishes to attract them away, and scattering things...

Do the yellow stick traps attract beneficial insects, too? I rather like the fact that my plot is crawling with life....

[Marb67]

I get them all the time. They are making holes in everything in my garden. Those little black beetles with a whie mark seem to feed on them as well as bit humans but I can live with that. I will try the mint though thanks for the tip.

[kris1960]

Lots of watering seems to help, I've given up with chinese greens and rocket until a bit later in year when they seem to go on holidays.