[saltmarsh]

"very interesting on the flea beatles. nothing i have tried has worked very well for flea beatles on eggplant. you are saying that just planting them nearby will help, eh? worth a shot. txs "

Yes, I read a little blurb somewhere on the internet, just "I heard lima beans will keep potato beetles off eggplant." No details or anything else. The garlic pepper spray I use on everything wasn't working for me in this regard so I planted a row of Early Long Purple eggplant in the middle of a 4' raised bed with 30" between plants. Then I planted two rows of Henderson Bush Baby lima beans on either side of the eggplant on the same bed. I had some extra eggplant transplants left over so I planted them on the next row without any lima beans. About 6 feet from the row with the limas.

As soon as the eggplant were in the ground, flea beetles buckshotted the leaves and I had to hand pick the potato beetles and larva on a daily basis for about 3 weeks until the limas leafed out, then the flea beetles and potato beetles abandoned the Eggplant. But it also worked for the row of eggplants which was planted 6' away.

And vegetable trellis netting really works for tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans.