A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 Mystery pest - Help!

I have calamondin tree Which seems to be growing well, blooming and so on. However, after purchasing it at a local flower shop, I noticed that some of the leaves were mishapen and twisted, with holes in some places. the pest seems to be a small, shiny black bug - about the size of a pinhead - that leaves small white moultings on the leaves. I might add that these "skins" are usually left on the same few leaves??!!? I went to the same flower shop (to purchase a sago palm) and asked the clerk's opinion. He told me to spray with insecticidal soap and wrap the plant in a garbage bag over night. I tried this and it seemed to work - no bugs exept the dead ones, and no new sheddings. But about 2 weeks later I had a few mealy bugs (not sure where those came from) I killed them off and used the soap again just to be safe. It's been 2 or 3 weeks and no sign of the mealy's but the black beasties have returned, shedding and further destroying the leaves. It seems to be the same areas being attacked as before - other leaves of the plant including young ones remain untouched - could it be leaf miners? the soap I used is Safer's End-All which contains Pyrethrins 0.01%. It claims to kill all stages of insects (including eggs). It claims to kill a host of species (It worked really good for a few mealy's I missed) But doesn't seem to work on the black beasties. Should I try a systemic compound? If so, which one? It is just blooming, no fruit is on the tree yet, but if I try a systemic will the fruit that will develop be ok for marmalade once it forms and ripens (which I understand can take a year or more) or should I aviod consumption even that long after? HELP!!!!

It sounds like flea beetles to me. The damage they do is seldom fatal to mature plants, but its very ugly, and the beetles can jump to other plants to continue their carnage.
Normally insecticidal soap should do the job, but if you don't get them all, they will quickly multiply and be a problem once again. Flea beetles like it hot and dry, so misting your foliage can make the plant much less attractive to the insect. Parasitic nematodes are often effective to get rid of the bettles as well....
I don't know of any systemic insecticides that I would personally feel comfortable using on a crop that I was going to eat!
Good luck.....
:rolleyes:

I might mention that there is no fruit on the tree right now, but if I used a systemic, would it effect fuit that developed in the future?