Lilacs, I have major problems with the flea beetles in the brassicas every year. Last year, they showed me what they can do to the eggplant and tomatoes. I would have lost some of the eggplant if I hadn't sprayed and I'd never seen so much damage to the tomato plants.

This year they chewed up the mustard greens so bad in one garden that they were unusable. They worked over the radishes and broccoli. But, it was the cabbage where it looked like they might even kill a couple of the plants (esp. enjoyed the Savoy).

Ignored the mustard greens and radishes but defended the cabbage and broccoli with rotenone/pyrethrin.

Flea beetles hide in cracks in the soil and under debris so it is necessary to "overspray" the plants to wet the surface of the soil a little. One spraying will probably not be effective so hitting them again in about 5-7 days may be necessary. This will also allow some time for the larva to emerge.

Eggs hatch where they are laid at the soil line on the plant stem. The larva begins feeding on the roots. The entomologists tell us that several generations may feed on the same plant - even if they individually don't eat much, that's got to be stressful to the plants.

digitS'

Flea beetles are one of the things that I spray for as well. I've used the pyrethrin based soaps before, but Steve's combo would be better.

Buddleia is a great 'indicator' species, I have several dozen around the border. They get hit first, and it gives a good warning that they're on their way to the veggie garden.

However, even before the Buddleia, come artichokes, and my experiment growing them this year may have been fatally hit. One night, the leaves were skeletons.

I went to check my canteloupes again tonight.

They're gone. I found a dried up bit of leaf skeleton, and that was it.

Two months to grow squash and melon seedlings. A couple hours for them to disappear.

And now the squash in the bed beside them are being skeletonized. All of the Neem oil, Liquid Fence, hot pepper wax, and diatomaceous earth I used had absolutely ZERO effect.

It looks like I will simply never be able to plant anything in that bed. Ever. Even the garlic is getting dessicated and falling over, and I didn't think flea beetles attacked garlic. In fact, I thought garlic was supposed to repel pests.

Shows what I know, I guess. :-(

I had disappointing results with neem. I'd read that it was supposed to be effective against aphids, spider mites, thrips, and mildew. These are all problems to be dealt with in my flower gardens.

I found that the spray was not effective against any of these things. Further, I got a skin rash and blamed it on the neem.

Just my 2 cents on neem.

digitS'

I've ordered some pyrethrin, and I don't want to put any more seedlings out until I'm reasonably sure that the bugs are gone. It's so discouraging to coax those seeds into healthy little plants only to have them killed within a couple hours of setting them out.

The Neem had no effect at all. Neither did the diatomaceous earth. And now the bugs are attacking my basil plants that I put in with my container tomatoes.

Are you absolutely certain the problem is flea beetles? I've had major damage done by earwigs, including the virtual defoliation of my rhubarb plant. After a couple of years, I finally have them more or less under control, but they're definitely still around. Most of the damage is done at nite, and you won't usually see too many of them during the day. You might want to check the things that are being eaten late at nite with a flashlite to see what you find.

Skybird

It's definitely flea beetles. I can see them hopping around. And that's what swarmed over my broccoli last year, too. They weren't shy.

Whether it's earwigs, too, I can't say. It could be. I have had problems with earwig infestations in the house before.

They're all nasty. Would pyrethrin work against earwigs, too?

Well, it may not be PC, but if I see them munching my plants, I'll use Sevin. It works.

I'm not PC either, Cnetter! I try to use only the chemicals that I need, but when something is being destroyed, I do what I need to!

When I found the earwigs doing major damage in '05, I was desperate to find some sort of a control so I went out and bought a small bag of a granular soil insecticide--the kind you use in a spreader to put on your lawn if it's infested with harmful insects. With a plastic teaspoon I sprinkled some (not a lot) of the granules around each plant where I was having a problem, including my rhubarb (There was no warning about using it around veggies), and within about two days almost all the earwigs were gone! I did need to repeat it a few times that summer. Also, when I was watering one of my whiskey barrels that summer that had some Ajuga in it, I noticed earwigs coming up onto the leaves to get out of the water, and when I looked under the Ajuga leaves, I discovered there were a whole bunch of them there too, so I sprinkled a few granules under the leaves and by the next day they were gone. I had a major infestation that summer---I think they had been happily breeding in my yard when the previous owners were in here and didn't do any gardening---but they've gotten to be less and less each year. I still have some trouble with the rhubarb and hollyhocks and a few other things (I always wind up bringing some into the house with me on the spinach and chard when I pick some), and I still use some of the granules when I need them, but it's gotten WAY better now. But I don't think that would do anything at all for flea beetles! Maybe if you try a little bit of the granular soil insecticide, you'll find that much of the damage is from earwigs. If you go out in the middle of the nite and don't see any, tho, I wouldn't waste the time or money. That may not be the problem. It was just something I thought you might want to check for.

Lilacs, earwigs are really tuff. I suppose that the rotenone part of the combo might work on them if the pyrethrin didn't - can't be confident of either.

I came back to this thread with the same thought as Skybird. Flea beetles seem to like to bite everything and the darn things do "swarm" altho' the bug people seem to be saying that if you think youÂre seeing a lot on the leaves of your plants, the roots are taking a heavy hit. But melons & garlic . . . ? The garlic makes me think of slugs since they'll make strips on the onions. And, they really like basil. Look for trails.

Earwigs are tuff (didn't someone already say that? ;o). They like to hang out in bushes and debris thru the day. My biggest problems with the critters are near a row of bushes and near an old board fence. Debris can be moved out of the garden but these others present more permanent cover. When dahlias get big or the heads of lettuce fill out - the earwigs stay right with the plants thru the day.

digitS'

Ooohh, if it's actually slugs doing the damage - and the only damage I've seen so far this year has been from slugs, iron phosphate works great and it's non-toxic.

Iron Phosphate comes in granules that you sprinkle on the ground and is sold as pet safe slug killer. It has to be reapplied often since it is water soluable, but iron and phosphate are very plant friendly things, so it doesn't hurt to reapply it.

Sevin works on earwigs too.

I grow a fair few dahlias - nothing like bringing in the dahlia bloom and having a dozen earwigs fall out onto the table. Blleeehhhh!

Sevin isn't organic. Although I'd be okay with using it on my neighbors.

I dusted the squash I have left with Garden Dust, which contains rotenone. But what do I do to kill the flea beetles in the soil once and for all? I put in some canteloupe, lettuce, and carrot seeds. How do I protect them from the flea beetles? Or can I?

I don't believe that you can ever be rid of flea beetles, Lilacs. Many do not believe that they are an important pest - and in small numbers, they aren't.

I think that the Garden Dust is a good choice. Just watch the plants and if the "shot holes" turn into leaf devastation - hit 'em again.

digitS'

I put a cat food can between the basil and zukes, buried so it was at ground level and put in some Boston Lager (i'm not a big fan of skunky beer - i prefer the honey ales). I was hoping it would attract slugs, since my neighbor said he has a problem with them, something has been chomping on the veggies and basil, and i had actually seen one slug (first one i've seen in a year). Not a single slug in the can this morning, but I had tons of dead earwigs in there. So apparently they can't handle their beers and they're the culprits chomping on the zuke leaves.

I lost another squash plant tonight. It turned into dried up lace, in spite of the rotenone. I really don't want to put any more plants in those beds until I'm sure that I've gotten rid of the flea beetles.

Somewhere I have some earwig traps. If I can find them I'll set them out. They're supposed to be for inside the house, but hey, a dead earwig is a dead earwig.

I also lost more brassica plants, and something is eating holes in my potato leaves. And my garlic is turning brown. I don't know if I should water it again or not. Perhaps it's time to let it fade in preparation for harvest.

I believe I mentioned last year about discovering that a modified wasp trap does a serious number on earwigs. They were in my hummingbird feeders every morning, which involved an earwig epic journey from out of the crack, up an 8 ft vertical plank, out into the stratosphere (earwiggingly speaking) on the cross brace, down the wire, down the glass sides, and into the little holes.

I was also having wasp issues and made a couple of wasp traps with the cut off plastic bottles / inverted cone traps, and set those out near the feeders. Every morning for a few weeks they were filled with earwigs.

Alright for all of that, but what will kill flea beetles once and for all. Organic or not?
Jack

They are back "big time" in my late radish and broad-leaf mustard plantings. Significant amounts of tender bok choy seedlings will soon be up for the flea beetles enjoyment. Since it has been raining, I have not been able to spray with rotenone/pyrethrin.

So I'm thinking that detonation of a large nuclear device over the garden should disperse large number of flea beetles into the Earth's stratosphere. This would significantly reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the garden. The flea beetles should remain in the stratosphere for years. Clouds of the beetles would then block out much of the sun's light, causing surface temperatures to drop drastically - Nuclear Winter.

Steve's digits

Hey, it might counteract global warming.

okay, enough already!!
what if flea beetles are immune to nuclear blasts? like cockroaches? Oh, now we have cockroaches everywhere, and probably flea beetles, too. Someone just gave us a bunch of "radishes", so she said, that look like turnips and are completely riddled with flea beetle holes.
No, I think it is the Yeti. He will eat all the beetles and without the hazards of nuclear winter :)
J.
oh, how about vacuuming the plants everyday?

If they are radiation resistant, that should be okay, J, as long as they stay in the stratosphere. There they would either absorb or reflect most of the sunlight.

And, I've never seen a flea beetle rear its ugly head during the Winter. I know they are out there just below the surface of the soil. They stay in cracks, holes, and under rocks much of the growing season as well. Therefore, your vacuum would need to remove the surface, oh . . . let's say, 12 inches of soil. That should do it!

d'S'

Once again will someone tell what I can do to get rid of them once and for all. Something I can put on the soil BEFORE I plant as they did a number on my mustard greens last year.

THanks 1eyedJack and the Dawg

Jack, I don't know that you can get rid of them "once and for all."

Flea beetle eggs are laid at the base of the host plants. The larvae live underground on the plant roots until they reach the adult stage.

I probably have more than my share of problems with flea beetles because I choose to grow all these mustard family plants - mustard greens, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc. Additionally, the bugs work over the eggplant and tomatoes and probably every other blessed plant I put out there!!

In my layman's pursuing of the scientific literature there appears to be a number of flea beetle species involved in the damage to my garden. And, damage it is - in some of the gardens, the mustard greens would be totally unacceptable to harvest if left to their own defense. One year, the damage to the eggplants was so bad that some of the plants nearly died before I realized what was going on.

So I spray rotenone/pyrethrin and it works well. But, I have to spray with the fact in mind that flea beetles like to stay under debris on the soil surface so they are not always on the plants. Overspraying the plants so that the soil is wetted is necessary. And, then since my organic spray has no persistence and isn't killing anything below ground - I need to spray a 2nd time, about a week later.

It might surprise you to know that when I worked at the greenhouse many years ago and my veggie garden was right outside the greenhouse, I steam-treated the growing beds to try to rid it of bugs one Spring. Yep! I ran a big plastic pipe thru a wall off one of the steam lines. Then buried a perforated plastic pile in the beds, recovered with soil, covered the soil with a heavy tarp, and blasted the ground with live steam for several hours. This really freed-up nitrogen for early rapid growth for the vegetables once they were planted. However, it did nothing with regards to the flea beetles later in the season.

The garden where I have the least problem with flea beetles is the one with the least rocks. You might be surprised what the soil surface looks like but, I swear, the other vegetable garden is worse!

digitS'

I've had minor flea beetle problems, nothing like described above. I use garden dust when I notice any outbreaks, seems to keep them in check. Another thing that seemed to help...wood ashes. I burn down some hardwood chips, and work the ashes into the garden prior to planting. As I mentioned, never have had major infestations.

For small gardens a combination of Rotenone and row covers put on at time of planting will help. With the row covers on they can't get at the plant to lay eggs. However there could be some carryover from the year before in the soil. Once the plant gets some size you may have some damage but the plant will survive. But they can sure take out eggplant and tomato transplants if you don't watch carefully. They also cause a lot of damage to potatoes. If you peel your potato and it has rusty looking spots just under the skin that is flea beetle damage. I sure don't recommend ashes. Most of our soils are alkaline and that makes it much worse.

I guess I wasn't clear. I dont burn down a major deciduous forest, and shovel that in. I just scatter a small amount around and rake it into the surface. It was a trick I learned....Wait for it....On the internet.

Works for me anyway, and I use less toxic chemicals. To each there own.