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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Flea beatles

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Flea beatles
  • Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 19:24:52 -0500


Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with flea beetles. They are
destroying my arugula, cress, mizuna and radishes and now I have noticed
them on my chard.

The silver plastic mulch helps keep them off of some things (another non-sustainable material) if you are growing for commercial purposes. It's more of a deterrent than a preventive, though, and works best combined with row covers.

Someone (I don't remember where or when) told me they make sticky cards with a non-drying kind of glue or flypaper, and put them on the ground along the rows that have the worst problems. In combination with row cover, they said it worked very well. I haven't tried it yet.

Another sacrificial crop that works good here is mustard. They seem to love mustard and radish and bok choi here.

If I find the link, there was a blurb on the internet from some university about flea beatles and it covered the timing issue about when they come out (temperature-wise). If you till up an area early and plant radishes, then wait for them to emerge and attack the radishes, you can then put something nearby and cover it with row covers once they have emerged and moved to the radish. That was the gist of one way of dealing with them, from what I remember.

I use a garlic spray from Veggie Pharm that helps, but doesn't really knock them out, and works best if they have another sacrifice crop to move to.

Guinea hens?

Dan C.






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