Fleas can be dangerous to plants and humans under certain circumstances. If you have them in your garden, you should fight them immediately with home remedies and prevent them intelligently for the future.
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useful information
The flea beetle (Psylliodes) is not actually a flea, but a flea beetle from the leaf beetle family. Its name derives from the flea-like, hopping locomotion that distinguishes it from other beetle species.
They mainly stay near plant food sources. Here they cause immense damage every year, which can even lead to their death if they are not stopped. The eggs are laid in the ground. Only the adult animals and the pupated larvae, which burrow through plant stems to the leaves after feeding on the roots, are harmful. Mainly young plants are deprived of their lifeblood with the feeding.
There are numerous types. The most common specimens in Germany’s gardens include:
- Potato flea beetle (Psylliodes affinis) – Prefers potatoes and other nightshades
- Canola Flea (Psylliodes chrysocephalus) – Prefers cruciferous vegetables such as radish, radishes and cabbage
recognize flea beetles
In order to be able to choose an effective measure to combat it, it is necessary to clearly identify flea beetles as such. There are several features that allow identification:
recognize appearance:
- Size: between two and four millimeters
- Color:
- Rape flea beetle Blue-black or dark green shiny chitinous shell
- Potato fleas have dark brown chitinous armor with yellow vertical stripes
- Veinless elytra in blue metallic or reddish to yellow, rarely with patterns or markings
- Elytra with clear dot stripes
- Head and pronotum often of the same colour, sometimes of a different colour
- Convex front chest
- Tenfold antennae
- Thick hind legs
Recognizing typical plant damage patterns:
- Up to two millimeters small, round holes on leaves (leaf skin remains)
- Scraped leaf tissue
- Damaged leaf tissue dries up, turns slightly brownish, cracks form
- growth disorders
- Older, healthy plants hardly show signs of serious damage
- Life-threatening damage to young plants possible
Typical ways of life and behavior:
- Overwinters under layers of mulch near hedge plants or under piles of wood and rocks
- Activity already in April/May
- Larvae only visible above the ground after pupation (circa between June and August)
- They like to eat a lot of young leaves and cotyledons of vegetable plants
- Prefer dry, warm weather
- Rarely found on trees and ornamental shrubs
rock flour, algae lime or rye flour
The flea beetles can be combated naturally with rock flour, algae lime or rye flour. It is simply sprinkled on the leaves. The best time is in the morning when they go out foraging after a night’s sleep. The parasites will stop eating because they don’t like the “taste”. As a result, they withdraw when they can no longer find food on a plant. But be careful when using algae lime, because it affects the pH value of the soil. It can result in a reduction in acidic soil conditions. If infested plants need an acidic environment, rye flour should be used instead of algae lime.
mulch layer
Mulch is a versatile household remedy that can also be used against flea beetles. Since the parasites love warm, dry conditions, they can be driven away by a layer of mulch on the garden soil, which is applied after watering and ensures long-term soil moisture. Mulch is also ideal for naturally preventing infestation. Lawn mulch works best.
Natural predators
Fighting with predators is less of a home remedy, but very effective and natural. The garden is home to countless animals, some of which have the flea on their food list such as:
- predatory and leaf beetle
- Hedgehog
- Spitzmäuse
Expulsion through scents
The flea beetles do not like different scents. If you notice them, avoid the area. This includes garlic and onions in particular. These home remedies are prepared and used as follows:
garlic broth:
- Finely chop two to three cloves of garlic
- Pour 500 milliliters of hot water over it
- Leave to steep for at least 15 minutes (maximum intensity is reached with a 24-hour steeping time)
- Sieve out the cloves and pour the liquid into a spray container
- Spray affected plants to dripping wet in the morning and afternoon (twice a day to avoid evaporation)
- All beetles should be gone by the third day at the latest
onion broth:
- 20 to 50 grams of onions (onion skins per one liter of water
- Roughly chop the onions and pour boiling water over them
- Leave for at least 3 hours
- Application as described under “garlic broth”.
- Spray plants every 10 to 14 days as a preventive measure
matches
The smell of sulfur from matches will drive away adult flea beetles and with a bit of luck even the larvae if they are still tampering with the filamentous roots of the plants. The smell of sulfur also has a numbing effect on the pests.
To do this, the unused matches are alternately placed in the soil around the plant with the match heads pointing downwards and upwards. The matches pointing into the ground distribute the smell of sulfur in the ground. In this way they create an “uncomfortable” quarters for the larvae. If specimens are not put off by this, they will run away at the latest when the smell of sulfur rises and reaches them while eating leaves.
prevention
As previously mentioned, scents and mulch layers can be used to prevent flea beetles. Other measures can protect against the parasites:
- Numerous checks of germinating plants at short intervals from April to the end of May in order to be able to react quickly if necessary
- Avoid regular watering and dry soil of vulnerable plants
- Closely raking the soil as agitation discourages larvae from pupating
- Pull weeds early in the year so that after hibernation they find no/hardly any food and move on
- Plant strengthening through compost fertilization or similar
- Stretch insect protection net or thin fleece over seedlings and young plants
- Create a mixed culture with spinach and lettuce – has a protective effect
