Flea Beetles & Diatomaceous earth
I have discovered and identified flea beetles in my vegetable garden. They really enjoy devouring my young eggplant seedlings, along with my pepinos 😕. So much so that I’ve lost 1/2 of my eggplants and I love eggplant 🍆 😁. It seems the beetles love living between the sugar cane mulch and the surface of my garden beds. I’ve never used diatomaceous earth before and am keen to get TGN advice before I do. The beetles seem to only feast on the solanum (nightshade) veggies but they are leaving my tomatoes alone, thank goodness.
Do I use DE dry or wet? I was under the impression it was safe to use in organic situations, is this correct?
Comments
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I bought food grade DE and I use a puffer/duster that I bought at the same time. I haven't had flea beetles but I've used it in my garden for other pests. I also use the puffer duster to put it all around the base of my house since it's getting cooler here and pests come inside when the seasons change. It doesn't work very well when it's wet from rain though.
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I am wondering if Sevin dust would also take out these pests, as it works for squash bugs.
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I have DE for controlling pests around the house but haven't used it in the garden because I thought it might harm beneficial insects as well as pests. If anyone knows that it won't, I'd love to know.
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Sevin dust is one of the most dangerous pesticides to use. I used to use it a lot thinking it was safe but it is very bad. That was information from an extension agency and I checked up on it. I will not use it at all.
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I will have top check on beneficials but I do use it in the house and on house plants.
Compost tea helps with insects and I hear worm poo tea is very good for controlling insects. Tyhe healthier a plant is the easier it is for it to fight off the bad bugs. Bad bugs are usually a sign that something is slighlty off in your gardens or that you need more beneficials or plants for the bad bugs to snack on - far away from the gardens.
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Its best used dry @JodieDownUnder
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@JodieDownUnder Are you using combination planting with your eggplants and nightshades?
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@Monek Marie I believe so. In the one bed, I have beans growing around the outer perimeter(3 sides), with eggplant, basil and tomatoes dotted in the middle. Beets, kale and calendula growing close by. The only thing getting hammered is the eggplant, the other plants are very healthy. The bed is enriched with homemade compost and mushroom compost and regularly gets a drink of worm tea or homemade liquid fertiliser. With the D.E, is it best sprinkled on the ground, plant or both?
@shllnzl I’d not heard of sevin dust before, so I looked up the active constituent and it contains carbaryl, so no good to me for my organic garden sorry.
@annbeck62 good thought on the beneficial insects. I found a YouTube video, where the guy makes up a liquid mix and sprays on the affected plant, so its not everywhere but now I can’t find that video.
@kbmbillups1 I will look out for a duster, that seems a good choice.
I believe I got a little excited and planted my eggplant out too early, too small. I have some more coming along and just repotted them yesterday. I will wait until they are bigger and the weather is warmer. I found this video from our very own Lynn Gillespie. The product is unfamiliar but will research and see if we have the equivalent.
Anyway thanks to all, I’ve learnt more about flea beetles in the last day than in a lifetime. A friend gifted me some DE, so I’ll work with that, experiment wet & dry and report back. Happy days.
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@Monek Marie @JodieDownUnder Sorry for giving non-organic suggestions. Back in the day when I was over run with squash bugs, Sevin was considered okay for organic gardens.
This was a good reminder for me to double check any products I use in the future.
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@shllnzl Most people consider sevin to be organic. I was told it was. I used to use it with bare hands and then read more about it and almost passed out, lol.
And here on TGN there are all different ideas of what chemicals or non chemical use is used.
Natural help for squash bugs is to plant radishes by the base and let them flower. For some reason that helps with squash bugs.
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@Monek Marie Good to know about companion planting squash with radishes. Thanks for the info.
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I tried DE this summer. It worked some. I didn't really want to get too carried away with it not being sure what it might do to my pollinators. It did seem to slow down the cabbage loopers. I companion planted to the best of my understanding. The cabbage loopers still seemed to manage to find my brassicas. They didn't seem to like my chard until fairly late in the season. I didn't know about radishes and squash, but all my radishes got thoroughly chomped by the loopers. Well, now that its cool the pests aren't bothering my plants. I'm just letting thing be and harvesting my fall crops and hoping to have things grow on into the winter.
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