Pests: Controlling flea beetles

Any ideas for ridding my eggplants of flea beetles?
tried DE, sprayed with water, squashed by hand those that don't jump... they are REALLy doing a number to these little plants. Never seen them so early before. Usually the plants are big enough to withstand a few holes when these darn things appear...

I use row covers on wire hoops over my egg plants and the flea beetles don't bother them. you have to put the row cover on as soon as you transplant the beetles or all is lost, though. This is why eggplant can be nearly impossible to grow organically, flea beetles. But with row cover the task is easy.

Thanks.. all my covers bit the big one last year and I *thought* I could get by without them.
Serves me right. I shall just have to go squash some more...

Lemonbalm~ Is this tongue-in-cheek? You're asking about organic pest control, but your screenname is "Lemonbalm" one of several plants containing a repellent? :)

This message was edited Thursday, Jun 7th 6:36 PM

HAHA- no- for once it was not tongue in cheek.
how do you use it- companion planting, spraying???

Lemonbalm~ Have it under cherry trees 3' radius. The borers fly around, take off, they just don't land. Not sure how best to extract just the essence, sometimes room temp alcohol works better on an herb than boiling water. I understand mints are extracted commercially w/steam.
Crushing and rubbing the leaves on my forearms works for me, tho it makes stains sometimes on clothes.

Lemonbalm;

Try planting a few marigold plants throughout your eggplants. Be sure to use ones that are NOT odorless, flea beatles don't like the smell and will be gone in a couple of days. Works great among tomato plants, too.

Lemonbalm,
Last year I had a similar problem with flea beetles. I read in an old organic gardening guide that catnip repels flea beetles. I didn't have any small plants, but had a large mature plant, so I pluked lots and scattered it all over my mulch. The flea beetles left, but this year I have a garden FULL of catnip. Maybe this will work for you, if your garden is fenced, or if you don't have a cat. Good luck!

Thanks, everyone.
I have plenty of lemonbalm AND catnip- I am about to go scatter...Here's hoping I will save a few plants.

I used Rotenone on my eggplants last year for flea beetles. I was told techinally Rotenon is an Organic.

Paulgrow,

Most certifiers have either banned or restricted it's use. Rotenone is very toxic.

I use radishes as a trap crop for flea beetles. Apparently the flea beetles like the taste of radishes better and they leave my crop alone. I also plant radishes among my cucumbers and my squash. It works like a charm for me. Good luck!

I just ran across a check list for eggplant problems that might be useful.

http://www.yardener.com/Helper/Food%20Crops/Vegetables/Eggplant/eggplant.htm

Neat site!
Thanks a bunch.

What are row covers? I have these eating my hostas. I recently bought a book at a garage sale and noticed the holes and it says they're flea beetles. Denise P.S. Any suggestions, the book says some chemicals to purchase?