Problems with Flea Beetles

Hi everyone, welcome to my first thread.
We have had such a hot summer so far this year and very little rain.
I seem to be plagued by every insect and bug about.
The worst i have are Flea beetles, which are everywhere.On nearly all my flowers, most are now looking sorry for themselves. They have holes in the flowers themselves and the leaves and don't look attractive as they previously did. I've had them for about 2 weeks now. Not seeing any before hand ever. I have also tried everything to get rid of them and they are still with me.
So have any of you guys had the same problem? Also do any of you know how to get rid of them?

I also have had loads of aphids,black fly,green fly and lots of other things that organic and non organic pesticides won't get rid of so i'm at a loss to know what to do next.

Thanks for reading, would appreciate some feedback.

 

Yep, me too, Ben. Welcome to Gardeners Corner, btw.

I cut some sweet peas, brought them indoors and stood them on the windowsill. Later the window was absolutely covered in them! Horrid little things!

But I think it's a bit like flying ants and so on. They're here for a season and then they disappear. I'm not worrying about mine. They'll die off eventually.

 

I've had some flea beetle damage to my beetroot leaves but it's not serious.

Like Daisees, I'm not worrying about it because it's only cosmetic, the roots will be just fine.

 

I think it's
Common pollen beetle - Meligethes aeneus - Family: Nitidulidae






This is a small black beetle with a metallic brassy or blue-green sheen.
It is very common, feeding in a very wide variety of flowers, especially yellow species, from spring to late autumn, and may descend in huge numbers on yellow items of clothing or washing hung out to dry! It is an important pollinator. Although it is a pest on oilseed rape, the species causes no little or damage in gardens.




So aesthetically annoying but not harmful!:thumb:



Chris

 

We used to just give veg the one spray with malathion and they were gone for the season, now we just fiddle around with expensive non effective pesticides till the cows come home, and its supposed to be greener

Not that I've seen any flea beetle myself this year, but I guess it depends on what your growing.

Pollen beetle are surely a different animal, and not a pest as such.........

 

help!

i've got them too! i thought they were just the pollen beetle, but i don't think pollen beetles eat their way into bean flowers! :(

they're not interested in my french beans or even my courgettes, just my runner beans!

despite loads of flowers, no beans at all are forming as these horrible things are eating the whole flower back to the stem !

i have sprayed with water and also tried diluted washing up liquid!

i'd be happy if they were just eating the leaves!

 

Sorry everybody!:dh: I was confusing the two beasties. Never had a problem with flea beetle but have often see pollen beetles, especially on sweet peas. Shame you haven't got the latter!:wink:

Chris

 

Hi everyone thanks for some feedback.
It seems i have also pollen beetles too. There's loads on my courgette plant flowers. I water the garden now often, i try to keep plants as wet as possible. The problem is they fly off and come back. I noticed the numbers seem to be down recently, its not as bad as it previously was.

Other problems i now have are lots of holes in my califlower and broccoli plants also my pepper plant. Not sure if its the beetles or what. I check the plants often. I did however notice what looked like lots of butterflies hovering around the plants. On closer inspection i noticed a very small catterpillar looking bug. So will have to see how i can stop them.

 

Thanks Marley Farley, i will give your recipie a go. I've done some bug picking off my veg plants, lots of eggs were on them too. All now been removed. Seems all the bugs are having a free meal at my expense. It's only my first year at proper gardening and so far i've faced quite a lot of challenges, i just hope in the end it will be worth it.

Thanks again, all those who have given advice