Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
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- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
i've always enjoyed learning and collecting bits of this and that in my head just in case they eventually end up being useful.
Thinking along those lines. One trick I've read about is to use trap plants. Find a plant that a pest is really attracted to so it draws them away from other plants. These could be sacrificial plants or to attract them to where you can destroy them. Many people don't want to use any pesticide, organic or otherwise, in their garden but might plant something nearby that they are willing to treat. I've never done this, just something I've read. The devil of how it works might be in the details.
To me eggplant attract flea beetles more than anything else I've found so they might make a good trap plant for flea beetles. It won't protect other eggplant but could protect other types of plants.
I know some people don't have any serious problems with flea beetles, either because of what they grow or where they are. In Arkansas I could not grow eggplant without treating them.