Egg plants eaten alive over night

[MikeRuth]

Good day everyone,
I am in zone 10A north of Los Angeles, Ca.

I just experienced for the first time having my young egg plants eaten alive in an overnight raid!
I just plut 5 in the ground from seed trays and they looked wonderfull. Two mornings later one of the plants was 90 percent eaten away. Others showed some signs of the same pest. The plants are in a slightly different area then last year but only 10 feet away.

Reading I'm told it could be a flee beatle. I'm not really sure what to use to prevent this and I prefer to use DIY methods and concoctions if and when possible. I did try the Dawn Soap and water mix, roughly 2 drops into a gallon of water and then sprayed on the bottom and tops of the leaves. nadda, saw no change.

And this may be a important note I have one still in a seed tray flat that was/is sitting up on top of a screen over a raised bed and still saw a little bit of damage .

Any ideas?

 

[Meadowlark]

Welcome @MikeRuth

My question would be do you see the classic "shothole" pattern in the leaves? Small holes in the leaf's characteristic of the flea beetle attack.

The speed at which this happened would kind of point me to small critters like rabbits or rodents.

I think I would plant the next one in a large container and see what happens. I've done really well raising eggplant in suitable sized containers.

 

[DiggersJo]

Flea beetle are very small holes and lots of them, they look well chomped by something bigger. Here I would suspect slugs or snails, but it looks a bit dry for that there? A large 5L cut plastic bottle for protection would help, but not so good if it is too hot.

 

[MikeRuth]

Welcome @MikeRuth

My question would be do you see the classic "shothole" pattern in the leaves? Small holes in the leaf's characteristic of the flea beetle attack.

The speed at which this happened would kind of point me to small critters like rabbits or rodents.

I think I would plant the next one in a large container and see what happens. I've done really well raising eggplant in suitable sized containers.

Yup the holes are there from inside the leaves and again some outside. I hoped one of my pics would show that.

 

[Meadowlark]

Yup the holes are there from inside the leaves and again some outside. I hoped one of my pics would show that.

They probably do...but my eyesight can't pick them up...sorry.

 

[MiTmite9]

P

Good day everyone,
I am in zone 10A north of Los Angeles, Ca.

I just experienced for the first time having my young egg plants eaten alive in an overnight raid!
I just plut 5 in the ground from seed trays and they looked wonderfull. Two mornings later one of the plants was 90 percent eaten away. Others showed some signs of the same pest. The plants are in a slightly different area then last year but only 10 feet away.

Reading I'm told it could be a flee beatle. I'm not really sure what to use to prevent this and I prefer to use DIY methods and concoctions if and when possible. I did try the Dawn Soap and water mix, roughly 2 drops into a gallon of water and then sprayed on the bottom and tops of the leaves. nadda, saw no change.

And this may be a important note I have one still in a seed tray flat that was/is sitting up on top of a screen over a raised bed and still saw a little bit of damage .

Any ideas?
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Please do not resort to using products which are not pollinator-friendly. Use of any type of commercial (organic or not) product is going to harm your beneficial garden critters. I suggest, since you only have a handful of plants, washing them off using gentle garden hose water spray. Early morning.

You could plant a "trap crop" of radishes right near to the eggplants. Radish leaves will lure the flea beetles to their leaves and, hopefully, your little eggplant guys will thrive.

 

[Sluggy]

If this was my garden veggy plot it would be slugs and snails. Lost all my very young globe artichoke plants over two nights to the wee beasties.