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Does anyone know what these spots & holes are that appeared all over my otherwise happy rocket crop recently?
I'm not sure if it's related, but there has been a lot of rainfall in my area recently, and my outdoor tomatoes (several metres away from the rocket) have started showing the first signs of blight.
Many thanks in advance.
They've also been appearing on the adjacent lettuces.
Update. I just caught these little sods in action on the leaves. Some sort of weevil perhaps?
I suspect that is actually flea beetle damage. Flea beetles move quickly when disturbed, so it is hard to catch them in the act. Your local garden center may sell traps for them though - you could put a couple in your rocket patch and see what you catch. There are some insecticides that work on them, and diatomaceous earth can help keep them off your plants. You'll have to decide what you are comfortable with, since these are edibles. Personally, I'm just serving my veggies to my family, so we live with the damage.
ETA: The photo you've added looks like a weevil. It is too blurry for me to tell if it has the usual v-shaped pattern on its wings, but they can certainly cause holes in lettuce and rocket leaves. You may have found your culprit!
Look (both sides of leaves) at night with a flashlight - slug and snail would be a good bet for the holes (and the "spots" which look to be "nearly holes"), and they are encouraged by damp conditions.
I'm not sure of the exact species, but this did turn out to be a type of weevil.
They also decimated the radishes I had growing next to the rocket.
The rocket hung on, despite being covered with the things, full of holes at times and looking really unappetising! It's now free of the weevils (not sure why they left, weather / predators?), but as I mostly ignored it, and didn't pick much, it's now rapidly going to seed.
Oh well, I'll try again next year...
