Fleahoppers. That's right, today's topic is garden fleahopper. Tiny, pesky, damaging fleahoppers. Not only do they seem to be in everyone else's vegetable garden, but they are on my garden too *sigh*. So here we go into summer with our first official insect:
The garden fleahopper is a tiny, black insect that hops (see cool picture from University of Arkansas) and feeds on a wide range of vegetables. The fleahopper is known to feed on beans, beets, cabbage, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, parsley, peas, peppers, potatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and many herbs & annuals. These insects will hop from host weedy plants such as quickweed, clover & morning glory onto your garden so attention to weeds is necessary. They are a piercing sucking insect which means your standard sprays often will not work.
A couple of websites of interest on flea hoppers & home garden insect control:
As the days are getting longer and you are spending more time outdoors let me remind you to drink plenty of water. Be safe out there & happy gardening!
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