If you don’t know what flea beetles are,  you probably haven’t tried growing arugula,  eggplant,  pac choi,  mizuna, turnips, radishes or any of the other plants these little monsters love.

They are tiny,  usually metallic colored beetles. They can fly,  but usually spring off the plant,  flea like,  when you get too close.

The tell tale sign of flea beetles is the myriad number of small perfect holes that they eat through leaves.  They have ruined most of our arugula plantings this year and we’ve just been able to keep ahead of them on the pac choi. They have also wrecked havoc on the radish and turnip leaves,  but that doesn’t effect the marketability of those crops.

It’s difficult to deal with them in an organic fashion,  next year we will be more proactive by using row covers to protect the crops from the invasion. In the mean time we are trying some organic insecticides,  but they aren’t a booming success.

I’ve heard people saying that they are particularly bad this year and that is some comfort, at least it’s better than having to admit I was unprepared and bested by a miniscule brained enemy.