Don't be suprised when they come right back. I gave up on treating them in my garden. Easier to just hand them a bib and fork. :-) Actually, just supporting established plants with lots of water and a dollop of organic fertilizer works for me. The FB's (that F could have more than one meaning, now couldn't it) should be slowing down soon. Between the late freezes in June and the flea beetles, I usually spend summer riding my horse and just enjoying the heck out of the garden view without looking at it too closely. If I looked at every ragged leaf and bloom too closely, I'd fall into utter despair.

Cheers,
Michelle

ps. I wouldn't think small amounts of insecticidal soap or pyrethrin will likely hurt your dog. I can only wonder how much pyrethrin I have inhaled while spraying my horses. If you find info to the contrary, I'd be interested to know.

Here is a link that might be useful: FB's

Exposed to air and sunlight, pyrethrin breaks down in a matter of a couple of hours. I wouldn't worry about it. At some point, the FB's just sort of go away.

Thanks guys!

I will...
A: Calm down
B: Let the dogs out...driving me crazy...all over the house...

:)

June is when it finally gets warm enough to start putting out squash and melons, but I'm wondering if I should just start taking June off from gardening from now on. I actually was not at all late putting out squash and melon transplants. It's simply that this is my third try, after the flea beetles ate up tries 1 and 2.

It is so discouraging, raising my babies up to be nice, healthy seedlings, and then having them skeletonized and killed within hours of setting them out.

Until I come up with a better solution, it's pyrethrin, pyrethrin, pyrethrin.

Every time I come in from battling flea beetles, I itch. It may just be psychological, but it drives me nuts all the same.

I'm having flea beetle woes too.

They skeletonized my tomatoes when I planted them first week of June. I sprayed them with a bug spray recommended by Tagawa Gardens, supposed to be organic, called "Eight" and they went away after a week and the tomato plants have all new growth with green tomatoes and are thriving now.

But now the FB's are all over my radishes and have decorated all the mesclun greens with nice little polka dot holes. So I've been spraying those too. We'll see. I ate some beet greens today that they didn't get and they were pretty tasty :)

I once read where sprinkling flour on the plants will deter them. It didn't work. I think like David said they just seem to up and go away when they're done.

I squish as many as I can every time I go out to the garden.

Here's to the flea beetles finding new digs!

Charlene

The active ingredient in Eight is permethrin, Charlene. Permethrin is a pyrethroid and Rutgers says of pyrethroids that, "They are synthetic chemicals similar to the natural insecticide pyrethrum which comes from the chrysanthemum plant, but they remain effective for longer periods of time."

I'm not saying the Eight is "bad" just that it is a synthetic. "Pyrethrins are insecticides that are extracts of the chrysanthemum flower, Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium and Chrysanthemum cineum. The plant extract is called pyrethrum." The names are all too similar.

Remember that the FB's hide in debris and cracks on the soil surface and be sure to spray there. Especially, if you are using a quick to breakdown pyrethrin spray.

FB population levels have really dropped here. I guess they aren't going to try to kill my eggplant this year or make the tomato plants look like victims of St. Valentine's Day massacre. A late planting of radishes has just matured and the foliage looks darn-near FB-free.

I have a little theory that since the FB larvae start off life feeding on the plant roots the centipede population grows until they begin to limit the FB's. Might be off base but I don't know what else would be feeding on the FB's, anything feeding on the roots probably won't be killed by spraying pyrethrin on the leaves, and there has to be some reason why I've tolerated centipedes all these years.

digitS'

I have never noticed flea beetles here in Utah Valley. I hope they're not around. Cross my fingers. But there is a local infestation of Japanese beetles about eight miles away, and I am pretty concerned about them making it to my neighborhood soon. I am seeing a lot of green and yellow bug traps on little poles all around town this summer -- I wonder if it's the state monitoring for Japanese beetles? I know they're paying close attention and trying to figure out what to do.

Do Japanese beetles survive the winters?

Re breakdown of Pyrethrin, last summer I was spraying the veggies after a wind storm blew in umpty-gazillion grass hoppers from the dry fields to the west. I sprayed them, they looked like they were dead, all over the walkways. And then an hour later, the really big ones all got up and flew off.

That's scary re: JB's. I didn't know they were trekking west. :-(

I am going to try a nematode for the FB's, it's supposed to be applied in the Fall and again in Spring. Since my garden is one big dry lot covered in mulch, it's perfect conditions for FB's.

I have the feeling, though, that killing them will only allow some other obnoxious pest to rise up and create havoc in the garden. We shall see.

On a positive note, I have pulled most of the bolting bindweed from around the yard. At least I won't have a billion more seeds this year. :-)

Cheers,
Michelle

Hmmm, come to think of it, we do have lots of centipedes, and other leggy bugs, about lately. Maybe they will eat all the little hoppers? They haven't come back yet, and I didn't hose it off after all. I don't think I can spray anymore, I like my little bugs so much and the little things that eat them are my friends. Then, sometime last night, I told my boyfriend that I wasn't going to spray unless they eat my tomatoes! Yeah, so kind until it comes to those pretty little fruits...

I did see a thing (in that first post's link at the top) about using Brassica juncea var. crispifolia as a trap crop...makes me want to start some seeds next year since I plan on trying more produce.

Oh, and I pulled almost all of the bindweed, too! Yippee!!!

Thanks Steve for educating me on the bug spray "Eight." It actually seems to work after a few consecutive treatments. All those "P" chemicals do sound pretty similar. My whole garden is covered in layers and layers of various mulches (remember the body bag pics? ha), so they are having a hay day hiding underneath it all.

JC I have bindweed growing up and twining around the fence surrounding my vegetable garden. It almost looks pretty (bite my tongue!); but I know better now!!!!

I'm having my cousin over tomorrow for lunch and I'd love to serve her a salad from the garden but all the mesclun greens are decorated with flea beetle polka dot holes. I will try to scrounge through and find the leaves that are not.