[xJoeyx]

A couple of days ago I notices that my lovely broccoli plants that I have grown from seed over the last 8 weeks , have lots of tiny holes in the leaves and on closer inspection , so did my cabbage , cauliflower and brussels .... When I put my hand near the plants , these little black things jumped off like fleas ........  

I asked a few of  the chaps around if they new what they were and they were scratching there heads just as much as I was .....

So I go home and straight on the internet to investigate these little critters !!

So I find out they are Flea Beetles ..... I went on to read that they are a bit partial to about anything in the brassica family , as well as potatoes , and toms , radishs , and egg plants ....

I was horror struck  

I spent the next 8 hours , reading everything and anything about these unwelcome visiter in the hope that I could find a way of controling them ....

I'm not one for using chemicals , it was one of my biggest reasons for getting an alloment , so I didn't have to consume nasty chemicals !!!

So I come up with a big list of things I could do

The first thing was Bright yellow sticky papper .... I looked on the the web and I these strips were like a £5 on pop for a pack of 5   ( I'm sorry but why do I want to spend money on these , I might as well go to the shop and buy my veg ) So I improvise  nowink

I run round house looking for yellow bits of card and I come up with the cover from my yellow pages , lol ( new that would come in handy one day ) I raided my daughters bedroom and unknown to her yet  wacko I pinch all the covers off her old school text book which were bright yellow !!! I managed to laminate about 12 pieces in all !! I'm thinking if I laminate them , then I can wash them once they become to bug infested and reuse them  nowink  Then I raided my kitchen cupboards to see if I could find anything sticky !!! I found a pot of black treacle in the back of the cupboard that had been there for some time , ( No one liked it , it had been there a few years from  a recipe I tried ) Result  smile I covered these laminated cards and took them down to the alloment !!! I hung a few of the on the net frame I had build so they were just floating in the air and place a few of the between the rows ..... I also Held one card over each plant and shock the plant a little and they all jumped up and stuck to the card .... this was very satisfing as the card was full of them by the time id done the last plant   !!!! This was not the only thing I did !!

Story to be coninued ......

[Stevens706]

Good effot Joey, did you then crush them to get rid of them. I tend to ignore them as they only do a little damage.

[xJoeyx]

I didn't need to crush them , they weren't going anywhere stuck in the treacle , or any of the other flys for that matter !!

I also made up a big mop bucket of of smelly soup consisting of
 

Boiling water , 6 crushed garlic cloves , one finely chopped onion , table spoon of extra hot chilli powers , and a table spoon of grated soup ..... I left that to stew for a day !!! stiring every now and then !!!

Now I read that Flea beetle like warm dry soil and its good to mulch the area , plus brassica dont like dry soil  so with my big pile of newspapers ( Id been collecting over them months I soaked each news paper in the soup and layed it out between all my brassica bed !! .... Then placed the sticky card inbetween the rows .....

What I really like about this was , that if I desturb the Flea beetle and it jumped it landed on the paper and I could still see them instead of the hidding in the soil and stick it to a bit of sticky card 

I'm also thinking because the ground is now covered in white paper , the sun is reflecting off the paper and is giving the plants more light    its all a bit of trial and error and my broccoli is looking very sorry for itself  ....

[xJoeyx]

Well I'm happy today , it seems like my effort has payed off today ..... But its early days , I've found around 4 / 5 beetles today in the whole patch  , compared to the 8 / 9 on each leaf yesterday .... It seems to have calmed them down a little !!!!!

[allotmentann]

I have flea beetle on my salad leaves and some herbs. Like you I did some research,  but have not tried the sticky card yet. It is good to know that it works. I know as they get bigger  the plant can recover, but there were so many on my salad leaves that they were struggling to grow anymore at all! I think they are finally growing through it but it has taken ages. I will definitely try the sticky card next.

[snowdrops]

The treacle will attract ants as well,I once saw the same technique on a gardening programme,but they used vaseline.

[xJoeyx]

Very true about the ants ..... I did notcie a few hanging around the cards on the floor !! I think I'll try the vasaline today and clean the cards of treacle ....

Thanks for advice  

I also notice becaue there are cards blowing in the wind just above the plants .... it makes the beetles nervous , ( Just like when you go to put your hand near them they jump off ) , I'm thinking of lowering the string a little so the cards are just above the plants !!

I'm also going to brush the underleaves of the brassicas with Diotomaeceous earth made from the crushed bodies of crustaceans. This is none toxic to humans , but acts like an itching power to all little unwanted critters !!!