My pepper plants have lots of holes in the leaves. Upon close inspection I found these teeny tiny pin-head sized little black bugs crawling around. How can I get rid of these without spraying poison?
Sounds like flea beetles, and if so.... well, there's good news and bad news. Good news is that they seldom do enough damage kill and plants often "out grow" the damage. Bad news is they're had to fight. Here are some things you can try for flea beetle control. Remove garden trash and plow or roto-till under weeds to reduce overwintering sites. Crop rotation is very important. Repellant sprays like crushed hot peppers and/or garlic mixed with soapy water can run them off, and lots of other pests too. Floating row covers are extremely effective, but can be expensive. Place them on seedlings and leave in place until the plants are old enough to tolerate beetle damage. A plus is that crops under row covers usually produce earlier yields. Place yellow sticky traps throughout garden rows every 15 to 30 feet to capture adults. Beneficial nematodes applied to the soil will destroy the larval stage, reducing root feeding and helping to prevent the next generation of adults from emerging. Diatomaceous earth can be dusted over plants to control the number of feeding adults. Trap crops, such as mustard and radish, can be planted near garden areas to draw pests away. Confuse the beetles by mixing up your plantings. Surround their favorite food plants with flowers and herbs like Queen Anne's lace, dill, and parsley, which attract beneficial insects. Lightly cultivate the soil around plants before and after planting to destroy any flea beetle eggs and larvae in the soil. Plus, flea beetles like to hide in cool, weedy areas, surrounding the crops with a 3-foot-wide strip of frequently weeded bare ground will prevent them from hopping onto your plants. If pest populations become intolerable, spot treat with botanical insecticides as a last resort. Pyrethrum: Pyganic™ has shown variable results and Rotenone. Growers have noted good control with rotenone (but as far as I know, currently, no rotenone products are on the OMRI approved list). Flea beetles can re-colonize rapidly, especially on sunny days, frequent treatment with any material may be required. Hope that helps. Peace, poor_old_dad
Thanks Poor Old Dad. I am container gardening, but I can definately try pepper spray and planting decoy plants. I had no idea there were so many bugs lurking outside my front door until I started gardening!
Another thing you can try is soap. Just be sure it isn't a soap loaded with chemicals. Any nautural soap should work. You make a solution with water(pretty watery like a tsp/gal) and spray the plant with it. You can make it a little stronger, but start soft for your plants sake.
