Black Beetle on Lamb's Ear

[LisaR]

Hi all,

This morning I noticed that my blooming lamb's ear is covered with
very small black beetle type insects. Anyone know what this would
be? Do you think if I just cut off the blooms, Iwill get rid of
them? I am kinda ready to trim them anyways, but the bees are having
so much fun.

Also, something is eating my bean and eggplant leaves. The plants are
still growing, but not pretty. I think that this happened last year
as well. I seem to have a lot of copper colored beetles in the soil.

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Lisa

[The Useful Gardener]

Watch for small beneficial wasps amid the bees. If there, I'd hang
onto the flowers - the wasps will pay you back in insect-destroying
larvae.

My problem with both beans and eggplant is usually the tiny black flea
beetles - real beetles just "flea sized" in someone's opinion. The
adults eat holes into the leaves and the larvae feed on roots
gradually weaken the plants. The easiest control is to "dust"
everything with diatomaceous earth (you'll hear it referred to as
"DE". The white powder is actually small diatoms - tiny, spiny sea
creature skeletons that madly irritate the bugs. Imagine being
encased in a suit of armor (the typical insect endoskeleton) and then
getting really sharp, itchy stuff in every joint. Viola! DE doesn't
do a thing to you except to perhaps supply a whisper of calcium, but
keep the dust out of your eyes and mucus membranes (nose, throat,
lungs), which it might irritate.

I had seriously good luck with my broccoli plants for the first time
this season because I finally got proactive and coated them with DE
and Surround (clay) spray before the beetles go to them. They were
(she sighs contentedly) perfect. Actually, they were so perfect that
they almost went beyond their prime because I was so enthralled with
dragging everyone I knew out to dutifully admire my perfect heads of
broccoli, they had almost flowered before I woke up and ate them.

I've also heard of folks using Neem, pyrethrins (which I don't
recommend anymore), garlic and pepper sprays, etc. etc. I hear you
can also use kale or radishes as a "trap" crop..... if you leave some
past-due plantings of those, the beetles seem to prefer them and may
go there rather than your beans.

Hmmmm.. copper colored beetles? Large ones are likely June Beetles
(June Bugs), round ones can be Mexican Bean Beetles (they look just
like gold or yellow ladybugs, don't be fooled!) There are copper-
colored, as well as black, ground beetles. The list is endless, I'm
not kidding.

I wonder if I can talk our local entymology guy, Dr. Pete Schultz, of
the Hampton Roads ag station into doing a presentation on good/bad
bugs for us, maybe at one of the libraries? Would anyone come to see
and learn?