Everyone has their most hated pests, but flea beetles have to be at the top of the list for many gardeners.

The beetles themselves are hard to spot because they’re quick to jump out of sight, but evidence is obvious. Leaves, particularly on kale and other cole crops look like they’re peppered with a tiny birdshot. If there are enough of them, flea beetles will completely defoliate the plant.

The larvae may also eat roots of plants and burrow into potatoes. This is what they did to my friend’s spuds, and she’s tired of having to cut out large hunks of potatoes ruined by tiny tunnels and feces. It’s so bad she is not going to plant potatoes for three whole seasons in an attempt to eradicate flea beetles from her garden. Going without spuds for that long (although I plan on sharing with her because I tend to go heavy on them in the spring) demonstrates how awful these little critters are.

Eliminating Flea Beetles

Flea beetles are tough to eliminate because they overwinter well in garden debris. There are more gardeners, myself included, who don’t completely clean the garden in the fall simply because the spent vegetation help hold soil in place. If I were to till in the fall, I would have nothing but pea gravel left in the beds by springtime. But this is a known vulnerability. Cleaning away the vegetation not only makes the garden look nice, it gives them fewer places to hunker down for the winter.

Trap Crops

The other challenge with flea beetles is they’re very mobile. If they don’t like one area, they’ll hop over to another. One way to catch their attention while they’re traveling is to plant trap crops between rows and even at 6 to 12 inch intervals in the beds of the particularly vulnerable crops.

According to flea beetle taste tests, they prefer the Chinese Southern Giant Mustard, which is good choice to plant between rows or beds, as well as around the perimeter of your garden. To intermingle among vegetables, try varieties of radish, such as Chinese Daikon and Snow Belle, to keep them off of your cole crops. Trap crops keep them in one place so you can kill them with a pesticide. Plant several weeks apart to ensure you have new vegetation to draw them to the right plants.

Organic Pesticides

As far as organic pesticides go, a combination of rotenone and insecticidal soap prove to be an effective measure. The same goes for a concoction of pyrethrins mixed with canola oil. Theres a product called Pyola that contains these compounds so you can spray it directly on the flea beetles. It kills on contact. (And, on a side note, its also supposed to be effective on Colorado potato beetles since I’ve never had them so bad as they were last year I’m going to give it a try. Even both boys picking and squishing the potato beetles weren’t enough to eliminate them.)

Homemade Flea Beetle Spray

Another gardening friend had an awful time with flea beetles in her kale last summer. She made a mix of garlic steeped in water, and sprayed it all over her plants. The entire garden smelled like a pizza parlor, but it worked. (Plus, it probably was a pre-seasoning to the absolutely delicious kale chips she made.) The flea beetles are maddening little buggars, but thankfully, there are several different methods to battle them without eliminating entire crops.

The beautiful photo of the kale is copyright akaplummer via istock.com.