The flea beetle is a shiny black insect 1/10 of an inch long. Some species have yellow or white curved stripes the length of the body. Flea beetles hop like fleas when disturbed.
Flea beetles are particularly serious about wired plants; plants which may well be nutrient vulnerable or underwatered. Moreover they feed on the cushy leaves of more youthful plants.
Flea beetles emerge in spring. Women lay eggs inside the soil at the base of host plants. Eggs are minute, whitish and hatch in a few week. Larvae are white and wormlike with brown heads to ¾ inch long; they feed on roots for 2 to a few weeks then pupate. The pupae are nevertheless for 2 weeks then new adults emerge.
There are one or two generations each three hundred and sixty five days. Adults overwinter in garden weeds and debris.
The flea beetle is situated right through North The U.S..
Purpose Plants: Flea beetles attack basil, beans, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, Chinese language language cabbage, collards, corn, eggplants, kohlrabi, muskmelons, peppers, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, spinach, tomatoes, turnips, watermelons, and other vegetables.
Feeding Conduct and Hurt: Adults and larvae chew many, many tiny holes in leaves and transmit viral and bacterial sicknesses in conjunction with early blight to potatoes and bacterial wilt to corn. The larvae feed on roots of plants. Flea beetles can destroy small plants.
Herbal Controls: Dust with diatomaceous earth, pyrethrum, or rotenone for essential infestations. Follow spinosad or Beauveria bassiana to kill beetles. Juvenile nematodes will destroy flea beetle larvae.
Herbal Keep watch over Calendar: Here is what you’ll be able to do seasonally to keep watch over flea beetles:
- Previous than planting: Place white sticky traps inside the garden (the ones will entice in point of fact useful insects as well). Remove all weeds from the garden. Sow a entice crop of vulnerable plants.
- At planting time: Use a entice crop to time the planting of your number one crop; plant your number one crop after beetles have attacked the entice crop. In spring, quilt plants with floating row covers; seal the edges at the soil to forestall flea beetles from coming into. Dust with diatomaceous earth; dust all the plant from the ground up; dust inside the evening to reduce hurt to in point of fact useful insects.
- While plants amplify: Mist plants with water inside the morning and early afternoon to decrease beetle procedure. Beetles prey on plants which may well be moisture wired. Use sticky traps around the garden. Dust with diatomaceous earth or rotenone for essential infestations. Use a garlic or scorching pepper spray on pests. Use a hand vacuum to remove beetles from plants. Spray pyrethrum on the undersides of leaves for essential infestations—two systems 3 to 4 days apart. Dust or spray with rotenone if infestation is heavy.
- After harvest: Clean all garden debris from garden after harvest; flea beetles overwinter in debris, weeds, and the soil.
Natural Predators: Floor beetles and parasitic wasps. Animal predators include chickadees, red finches, titmice, vireos, and warblers. Toads consume flea beetles and their pupae.
Scientific Identify: Phyllotreta striolata
