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Produce => Pests & Diseases => Topic started by: gray1720 on May 17, 2015, 10:46:33
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How are other people controlling flea beetle?
I've just twigged that my swede seedlings are being munched as they come out, no wonder my germination always seems erratic, the poor things get chewed to bits before I ever see them!
So... what do you do about the little bar stewards? Organic suggestions preferred, please! Oh, and windproof - we're pretty windswept.
Thanks,
Adrian
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Time honoured remedy is to drag a paraffin tainted rag along the emerging row, presumably they work on scent and this masks the cabbagey flavour. I concede that this may not be entirely organic but its the only answer you've had ?. Any other flavours known to work, peppermint oil?
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Would a garlic spray have same effect?
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I'd try covering them with fleece to prevent further leaf damage, usually they grow through the attack but it does knock them back.
Lots of flea beetle here too, I now tend to sow seed in modules and plant out once they are big enough not to be so vulnerable and tasty. Works well with swede and beetroot, but if they are direct sow varieties environmesh or fleece keeps the blighters at bay.
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hi all 5rod here
I use provado ultimate bug killer(bayer garden) works great on flea beetle and lots more
sold in garden centres or sume Tesco. hope this helps. :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead:
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the idea is to drag boards smeared in grease along each side of the rows while shaking the plants. the flea beetles jump off and stick to the grease.
works for broad beans but probably looks silly with a row of seedlimgs
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and its cheaper lol :blob7: :blob7: :blob7: :sunny:
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Hmm. I haven't got plants big enough for the grease boards - they are literally being peppered as they emerge, but I might give the paraffin a go. Or try garlic, as I have a big tub in the porch.
I don't think the Provado would go down well with the committee and the landlords as obviously containing an artificial compound it is evil, unlike safe happy natural ones such as Derris :angel11:.
Unless all this rain really brings them on, it looks as though I may have to re-sow first, they're that bad. Bathtard beetles!
Adrian
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I leave them alone. Plants soon grow too big to be damaged, though it can look quite spectacular on seedlings. Provado is imidacloprid, which is persistent and decidedly nasty. Bayer themselves describe it as 'highly toxic to bees'. Better to use paraffin.
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Well, this thread reappeared when I tried to find the one I started recently about late swedes!
Paraffin doesn't seem to make the blindest bit of difference - three whole packets of swede seed have given me on tiny clump of maybe half a dozen seedlings, plus one singleton, with leaves like someone shot a colander with a shotgun! Maybe in less dry a year they might recover, but those sowings were a dead loss (if you look into the recent decision on neonicotinoid insecticides, their major use is for flea beetle on oilseed rape, looks like it's been a bad year for the little sods).
Adrian
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Cloche them till the plants are big enough to withstand them? Should definitely not get too hot in this weather.
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Alkanet's solution is a good one but Lawrence D Hills took the same idea further by automating it - he described and drew a diagram of a wheeled flea-beetle disturber/trapper in his book "Grow Your Own Fruit and Vegetables".
I think his looked like a surrey carriage on a long stick but it could be cut down to two plywood wheels more than twice the diameter of the tallest plants you want to clear, spaced on an axle (attached to the stick) wide enough to put them either side of the widest plants you want to clear, with a wire U that can be positioned to touch the tops of any plant you want to clear.
You stick flypaper or similar to the inside of the wheels and move it down each row. You should catch around 10-20% of the flea beetles every time you disturb the row. You should also have a sort of roof over the whole with flypaper to catch any that jump straight up.
It's a brilliant book absolutely full of stuff like this, and can be printed off Ad Hoc at bookshops - I think Waterstones do it.
Cheers.
Cheers.
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I've started to use Diatomaceous earth which is 'puffed on' once or twice over a few days or week.
It does the trick and is organic. See other thread for details.
Unfortunately it doesn't only get rid of flea beetle and so I use it sparingly and only when really needed. I also accept what others say about flee beetle not being too damaging but they've been particularly prolific this year (beetle, not other posters 😉) and have been getting the better of sweet peas, radish and other seedlings.
Hope this helps
Alan
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I think I read somewhere that keeping plants well watered is supposed to help as the flea beetle thrives in the dry. My greens do finally seem to have outgrown the pests, but the caulis and sprouts are a bit pathetic. Everything else looks good now.
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The RHS suggest giving the seedlings a high nitrogen feed, like Sulphate Of Ammonia to help them outgrow the attack.
Once the plants grow big enough they become less vulnerable to attack. :happy7:
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Flea beetle damage is why I added brassicas to the list of things I start in modules and then plant out.... in exchange for a small, predictable (and TBF put on the calendar two months in advance type) faff, absolutely perfect brassica plants, every time.... currently drowning in a glut of delicious little minicole cabbages, looks like the the pointy red ones will be next, then we'll be into the autumn round reds, the kale, savoys and brussels all look sturdy at the moment too... I sow a single bedding strip module sparingly with seeds, pick the best 12 seedlings and prick them out into a 12-cell tray, the rest go into 6-per bedding strip modules to get sold at car boots..... from a cell that size they go straight into the ground, summer cabbages and caulis straight into cropping position, winter brassicas into a nursery bed at 6" spacing, then July/August the winter stuff can go into final spacings....