🥬 Cabbage How hard it is to control: ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Flea beetles on cabbage

Small jumping beetles of the genus Phyllotreta chew tiny round pits in brassica leaves. They are most dangerous to seedlings and freshly planted transplants, which they can destroy in a few days.

Symptom photos

Flea beetles — Small striped flea beetle close-up — black beetle with yellow stripes on the wing cases — Small striped flea beetle close-up — black beetle with yellow stripes on the wing cases Photo: Aleksandrs Balodis, licence CC BY-SA 4.0

Symptoms

Small, round holes and pits in the leaf blade
Leaves looking as if peppered with shot
Small black or metallic beetles jumping about on the leaves
Seed leaves and the growing point of seedlings drying up
Damage heaviest along the edge of the bed

What it does to the crop

Seedlings lost and the need to re-sow
Growth of young transplants checked
Loss of market value in young rocket and radish leaves
Damage that encourages bacterial infection

What encourages it

A warm, dry, sunny spring
Temperature above 20°C with no rainfall
Dried-out soil and slow-growing seedlings
Last year's brassica plot nearby

Prevention

Cover seedlings with fleece from the day they are sown
Keep the top layer of soil moist
Push seedlings on with watering and feeding
Mulch between the rows
Remove brassica weeds where the beetles overwinter

⚠️ Before you reach for a spray

This atlas is informational and still growing — different diseases can look almost identical. Confirm the diagnosis and read the product label before applying any plant protection product. If you are unsure, ask your local extension or advisory service.

Keep the disease atlas with you in the garden

In the app you can identify a disease from photos, work out the spray dose for your own bed and log the treatment in your task calendar. Free, no sign-up, works offline.

Open the atlas in the app →

📅 When to Sow Cabbage? →