The grape flea beetle occasionally is a serious pest of grapes in the Midwest. The most serious damage occurs in the spring. The flea beetles overwinter as adults and emerge during April. Upon emergence adult beetles begin to feed upon newly swollen grape buds, chewing holes in the ends and sides. Such damage destroys the capacity of a bud to develop a primary or secondary shoot.
Female beetles lay eggs mainly under loose bark of the grapevine.
Larvae hatch and crawl to the developing grape leaves, where they feed on the upper surfaces. Adult beetles and larvae also feed on leaves, but the injury they cause usually is negligible. The head is black, and there are six or eight shining black dots on each of the other segments of the body, each dot emitting a single brownish hair. The under surface is paler than the dorsum. Its legs, six in number, are black, and there is a fleshy, orange-colored proleg on the terminal segment.