Kitchen Garden Forum

My oriental salad leaves were ready for cutting today, They are covered in fleece well but there are a few small gaps and today when i went to cut them a lot of the Pak choi and some of the others have lots of small holes, I'm really annoyed about this because I thought i'd taken the right precautions, I'm assuming this is caused by flea beetle.
Is there anything I can do to stop this from getting any worse? And any advice on how to prevent this happening again would be great?

Thanks

Hi Geacher

The problem with flea beetles is that they overwinter in the soil. If they are in your soil they merely emerge under the fleece. Have a look at the RHS advice.

Hi Alan,
With Flea Beetle they love any litter left on the ground and this is one of the reason that I do not agree with the use of mulching which encourages them. One of the best insecticides to clear them is Nicotine.
The Nicotine can be sprayed under a fleece without causing harm to anything other than the Flea Beetles.
JB.

Lliy flee beetle is alive and well today. Found 3 of the blighters for the first time today in many years. Squished them.