Re: FW: Flea Beetles - leaf washing

Pat Elazar (Pat_Elazar@cwb.ca)
Thu, 24 Jun 1999 16:02:24 -0500

Up here, we are mostly bothered by flea beetles during very dry springs. So the
leaf washing tactic makes some sense to me on brassicas anyways. I'd be real
careful about any foliage wetting of nightshades tho- it might cause more
problems with disease than it solves with pests. This season has been cold &
rainy; cold & dry; hot & dry; AND hot & humid in successive weeks! Some local
mkt gardeners had to spray early brocoli & cabbage transplants because of flea
beetles & I saw graduate student's family plots at the university devastated but
I didn't see any damage at all in my garden. We've been harvesting spinach &
oriental fry greens since May 22, brocoli since June 14. I'd like to believe
that the relative absence of pests in an otherwise troublesome year is due to
the massive amount of soil improvement we've done here... On the other hand, It
could just be dumb luck...

"Patricia Ruggiero" <ruggierop@earthlink.net> on 06/24/99 02:26:47 PM



To: "Sustainable Agriculture" <sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu>

cc:



Subject: FW: Flea Beetles - Help!!

Message #3 of 3

Pat

-----Original Message-----
From: Organic Gardening Discussion List [mailto:OGL@LSV.UKY.EDU]
Sent: Monday, June 14, 1999 4:54 PM
To: OGL@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: Flea Beetles - Help!!

I don't think the DE will help with flea beetles. Here's what works for us:
1. set up a good sprinkler and drench the plants with plain old water 2 x
per
day. Or hose them off if you don't have a sprinkler. The flea beetles never
seem to bother wet leaves.
2. Cover susceptible plants as soon as you plant them. We cover eggplant,
collards, mustards, arugula, tatsoi with remay and SEAL all edges with soil.
This works wonders with the greens. We had total success with eggplants,
too.
But you have to take the covers off for pollination.
3. Once the plants are big enough, they aren't bothered much by the flea
beetles. Even potatoes that looked completely eaten did not seem to have a
decrease in yield.
4. Rotenone would probably work, but I don't use it.
Leslie Zuck
Pa Certified Organic
and
Common Ground Farm

In a message dated 6/14/99 8:33:02 PM, rbfarr@erols.com wrote:

<<Greetings, all!

My garden is being overrun with flea beetles - not just on my peppers,
but on EVERYTHING.

Going to get some Diatomaceous Earth today. But wonder what I can do to
prevent/conquer such outbreaks.

I assume they're living in the grass - I'm on 10 acres of mostly
pasture, surrounded by 100s more. So, they're probably in the grass.
But I've never been inundated by one pest - usually, the problems are
local, and there may be several pests.

But this year - wow! We're in a drought here, so that prob. is also to
blame. And last winter was mild.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance -

Robert.
>>

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