I don't know what some of these post are talking about. A flea beetle is the size of a pin head, and they do not fly. However a can jump quite a distance for there size. Make sure there is no weeds or other vegetation around the plant. If you put down black plastic in a row and plant the eggplant through the plastic, that will help. One thing you can try is the sticky goo I use for the apple maggot fly. Use a piece of bright yellow plastic card covered with the goo. They are attracted to the color and will get stuck in the in the goo. Depending on the number of beetle, you might have to replace the card or clean it. Vegetable oil is use as a solvent for the goo and then some soap and water. reapply the goo. I would use a piece a card 4" x 6" at each plant.

Is it possible that the white bigs are aphids? My lettuce outside tends to get pink or white aphids late in the season (spring). Since i've not tried them indoors and i don't buy plants, that's my guess. I'd probably try safer insecticidal soap or a combo of 1/2 rubbing alcohol, 1/2 water and a drop of dishsoap and tobasco in a spray bottle before i went to the trouble of finding neem (unless you already have it). That combo works well on aphids, but not so much on mealy bugs if that's your white stuff . It will knock them down for a while, but the only thing i've found that's non toxic that actually kills mealies (or scale, which mealies are related to)for good is dormant or light oil sprays. Dormant for stuff without leaves, light for stuff that's growing. Usually the same stuff can be used for both- it's just the dilution rate. The winter crops are really quite cold tolerant, and if they do have some damage, will generally outgrow it before long. I don't protect my stuff til it's going into the teens unless it's a sudden drop that they wouldn't be acclimated to. Of course, the more you protect, the more usable crop you'll get from them when it's very cold. My goal isn't that- it's just for them to get cranking as soon as it's stable-ish in feb-march. Not that i don't enjoy winter crops, i'm just too cold natured and lazy in winter to be fussing in the garden.

Dorothy, There are many species of flea beetles and different species eat different things. Some of them are general feeders and will eat anything with leaves and others only eat specific types of plants. In general, in terms of the vegetable garden, the kinds of flea beetles I see here feed on the foliage of eggplant, tomato, peppers, eggplant, petunias and all the brassicas. When those plants aren't actively growing, they eat weeds. I've noticed flea beetle type damage on the wild solanum plants like horse nettle even in the middle of summer, although I've never gotten down on my hands and knees in the pasture to see if it is, in fact, flea beetles causing the damage to the plants. There are many organic methods of dealing with them, everything from botanical pesticides to beneficial insects to trap plants or companion plants to merely covering the eggplants with floating row covers to keep the flea beetles off of them for as long as possible. Of course, you have to remove the row covers in order for pollination to occur, but hopefully by that time the plants will be large enough to withstand any possible damage. Since some species of flea beetles are believed to overwinter in soil (or in yard and garden 'debris' like mulch), I think it might be worthwhile to treat garden soil with beneficial nematodes in early spring as the beneficial nematodes are reputed to help control flea beetles. In our climate, beneficial nematodes are best used only in mid to late-autumn and in spring because they don't work as well in hot conditions or during cold weather. I often plant radishes as a trap crop around eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers because the radishes can be planted early---before everything else except the potatoes---but even then, the radishes are up and growing before the potato foliage breaks through the soil. The flea beatles flock to the radishes and then I spray the radishes with something like neem or insecticidal soap to kill them. Most botanical pesticides are reasonably good at reducing their numbers but I've never seen anything completely wipe them out. I think in a rural area there's just too many of them for us to ever achieve great control. Rotenone is one of the most effective botanical pesticides for flea beetle control, technically speaking, but you know that I don't use it and wouldn't recommend it, and I know you feel exactly the same way. I believe I'd use a chemical pesticide like Sevin before I'd ever use Rotenone. In fact, I would never use it. (It is an example of a very dangerous organic pesticide that I think shouldn't even be allowed in organic gardening.) Mustard greens are a great trap crop for flea beetles, but if I was using them I wouldn't plant them in the main garden because they are flea beetle magnets and when I've grown them in the garden, I seem to have more flea beetles all over the garden than ever before. I'd plant mustard greens in a row near the garden but several feet away from it to draw the flea beetles away from the garden. (You can use sunflowers in the same way to draw stinkbugs away from the veggie garden.) I'm going to go to the ATTRA website and link their pages on Flea Beetle control, which are wonderful and very detailed. ATTRA publications are my 'go to' resource when I'm looking for an organic method for anything. They only include well-researched organic rememdies, and avoid the 'home remedies' many people resort to that are generally unproven. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Flea Beetle Control From ATTRA

The active ingredient in Eight is permethrin, Charlene. Permethrin is a pyrethroid and Rutgers says of pyrethroids that, "They are synthetic chemicals similar to the natural insecticide pyrethrum which comes from the chrysanthemum plant, but they remain effective for longer periods of time." I'm not saying the Eight is "bad" just that it is a synthetic. "Pyrethrins are insecticides that are extracts of the chrysanthemum flower, Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium and Chrysanthemum cineum. The plant extract is called pyrethrum." The names are all too similar. Remember that the FB's hide in debris and cracks on the soil surface and be sure to spray there. Especially, if you are using a quick to breakdown pyrethrin spray. FB population levels have really dropped here. I guess they aren't going to try to kill my eggplant this year or make the tomato plants look like victims of St. Valentine's Day massacre. A late planting of radishes has just matured and the foliage looks darn-near FB-free. I have a little theory that since the FB larvae start off life feeding on the plant roots the centipede population grows until they begin to limit the FB's. Might be off base but I don't know what else would be feeding on the FB's, anything feeding on the roots probably won't be killed by spraying pyrethrin on the leaves, and there has to be some reason why I've tolerated centipedes all these years. digitS'