Flea beetles???

[tankgirl73]

I seem to have flea beetles on my tomatoes. Not thousands of them -- at most I've seen 3 on a plant at one time. And not all the plants seem to be affected either. There are a few leaves with the "buckshot holes" on them.

I'd never heard of these guys before and had to do some googling to identify them after finding them on my plants. Teeny little shiny black hoppers, eating holes in my maters.

Info I've read implies that they're a problem year after year, overwintering where they had previously enjoyed their dinners. But this is my first year gardening here, so I don't know where they came from lol...

It also implies that they're only truly a problem when the plants are young. Not sure if they just don't eat older plants, or if it just means the plants are able to withstand a few holes betters.

My plants are still pretty small, but seem to be weathering the holes just fine.

Just wondering how concerned I should be, and if there's a particular natural treatment I can use to keep them away, if need be. So far, the only pests I seem to have are these guys and slugs (ugh), so that's not too bad, really.

[Buzzer Beater]

Hi again tankgirl!

I've had flea beetles, those little buggers! Every year they decimate by brassicas, so I don't put much effort into those- sad to see your brussells sprouts get et after babying them all summer. They can be voracious. They haven't bothered my tommies too much though. They are there, just like yours, and the first couple of years we sprayed them with some natural orange stuff... it set them back some. Now we just ignore them and try to keep our leaf litter cleaned up around the base of the tomato plants.

How long have you had them?

[tankgirl73]

Not very long. I haven't had the tomato plants for very long!

Our last frost date was May 20. I had a few seedlings out by the 21st, and the rest went out gradually until mid-June (as I was building and filling the raised boxes). They were all started indoors at the same time, then I almost killed them with a botched hardening off (did kill about 1/3 of them), and it took them awhile to recover from that... so they're smaller than they would have been.

The earliest transplants, about 5 weeks in the ground, are actually doing really well now. Growing fast, filling out. A good 12" tall, lots of shoots, beautiful. The most recent ones -- about 2 weeks in the ground -- are still tiny seedlings, just starting to make their move, growing-wise lol. Then there's every stage in between.

The beetles, I've only noticed for about a week. I can't say for sure they weren't there before, just that I didn't notice any bugs, or any holes. But about a week, for sure.

[Buzzer Beater]

DH is out of town til tomorrow... when he gets back I'll ask him what that spray was. He might have made it up with cayenne etc, but it seems we bought it. Hopefully they won't eat too much.

We had our last frost June 24!!!! Our tommies are in a lean-to on the side of the house still. We'll take it down soon.