This afternoon I was walking past my eggplants and saw those darn flea beetles just starting in on them. I went right for the flour and dusted them. A few hours later I went past again and checked: no flea beetles. Yes, DE works, too. One day I made two trips to evilorangepalace for it. I couldn't find it on the first trip (nor could the sales help) and couldn't find the manager either. I called when I got home, just to chew him out. He put two bags at the register for me. Traveled to EOP and back home, applied the DE, and then came in the house to read some posts on my organic gardener's listserv where someone had just written a post saying flour works as well as DE. Grrr. Will never forget that day. Cher

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

but they are wreaking serious havoc on my eggplants (all the leaves are covered in tiny holes). ==>>> tiny holes and serious damage.. dont quite equate in my book ... they may not look pretty ... but are the leaves failing???? .. are they skeletonized???? could we see a pic ... we have to start with ruling out some cosmetic damage.. as compared to damage that effects the plant ... at least i would ... i dont get to overly concerned.. by august.. that plants get tired.. or i should say.. 'look' tired ... or have cosmetic damage ... ken

Jack, I don't know that you can get rid of them "once and for all." Flea beetle eggs are laid at the base of the host plants. The larvae live underground on the plant roots until they reach the adult stage. I probably have more than my share of problems with flea beetles because I choose to grow all these mustard family plants - mustard greens, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc. Additionally, the bugs work over the eggplant and tomatoes and probably every other blessed plant I put out there!! In my layman's pursuing of the scientific literature there appears to be a number of flea beetle species involved in the damage to my garden. And, damage it is - in some of the gardens, the mustard greens would be totally unacceptable to harvest if left to their own defense. One year, the damage to the eggplants was so bad that some of the plants nearly died before I realized what was going on. So I spray rotenone/pyrethrin and it works well. But, I have to spray with the fact in mind that flea beetles like to stay under debris on the soil surface so they are not always on the plants. Overspraying the plants so that the soil is wetted is necessary. And, then since my organic spray has no persistence and isn't killing anything below ground - I need to spray a 2nd time, about a week later. It might surprise you to know that when I worked at the greenhouse many years ago and my veggie garden was right outside the greenhouse, I steam-treated the growing beds to try to rid it of bugs one Spring. Yep! I ran a big plastic pipe thru a wall off one of the steam lines. Then buried a perforated plastic pile in the beds, recovered with soil, covered the soil with a heavy tarp, and blasted the ground with live steam for several hours. This really freed-up nitrogen for early rapid growth for the vegetables once they were planted. However, it did nothing with regards to the flea beetles later in the season. The garden where I have the least problem with flea beetles is the one with the least rocks. You might be surprised what the soil surface looks like but, I swear, the other vegetable garden is worse! digitS'