Controlling Beetles

[Benjoe]

I have gone and checked on my peppers 2 different nights, and the Brown Beetles are on them devouring the leaves. I was wondering what would be a good way to control them. They completely stripped one of my biggest plants of leaves.

Also they seem to prefer some plants over the others. Does anyone have a theory about that?

 

[ditter]

I got hit with them one year. Not fun. You can see them in the mornings before it gets hot. Lots of do it yourself sprays with garlic, onion and pepper mash. You can go with a neem oil or insecticidal soap, but you may have to bite the bullet and go with one of the nasty ones like ortho or bayer.

 

[LGHT]

Get a sprays that contains Spinosad. It will kill them and is OMRI listed so you know it's safe. It works by only effecting bugs that injest it and says it has a 100% mortality rate, but takes a couple of days to kill the bugs. I found one that had .5% that was about $12.00 where the one that was $6.00 only had .001%

 

[scarpetti]

Benjoe, my only thing is to be completely sure it's the beetles eating everything and not the beetles on the plants eating what's actually devouring your plants. A lot of the beetles we get here are mainly predators. They eat the aphids, white flies and little bitty inch worms. Flea beetles, Blister beetles are really BAD! Common Black beetles, Black Lady beetles and White Fly Predatory beetles are GOOD! At least they are in the SF Bay area.

 

[LGHT]

Benjoe, my only thing is to be completely sure it's the beetles eating everything and not the beetles on the plants eating what's actually devouring your plants. A lot of the beetles we get here are mainly predators. They eat the aphids, white flies and little bitty inch worms. Flea beetles, Blister beetles are really BAD! Common Black beetles, Black Lady beetles and White Fly Predatory beetles are GOOD! At least they are in the SF Bay area.

That's why Spinosad is so popular because the only thing it harms are the bugs that actually eat the plant. So beneficial insects that DO NOT eat the plant aren't harmed. A little more expensive, but well worth it it my opinion.