I Hate the Leaf Miner: Control Them a Healthy and Happy Plant

I hate the Leaf Miner. Control them and make your plants happy and healthy.

The squiggly lines through your plant’s leaves will be from Leaf Miners.

These common garden pests are the larva from flying insects like, moths, sawflies, beetles, and flies. They lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves and when the eggs hatch they start to burrow into the leaves, making a tunnel (or mine) through your plants leaves as they suck the sap out of them.

There are several different varieties (eg. Citrus, Boxwood, Tomato Leaf Miner, etc.) but controlling them is the same for each.

Leaf Miner Control

Here are some of the best natural ways for Leaf Miner control.

• Keep an eye on your plants. At the first sight of a brown wiggly line, squish the line between your fingers to prevent further infestation.

• You can also just remove the effective leaves from the plant and put them in the garbage. Don’t put it in the compost as it will promote a bigger infestation.

• They will attack both healthy and weak plants but having a healthy plant will help prevent a Leaf Miner infestation in your garden.

• Covering your plants whenever possible with a row cover will stop flying insects from laying their larva on the leaves therefore you won’t have any problems with them.

• Another way to control these Miners is to release a very small (about 2 mm in length) parasitic wasp called Diglyphus into your garden. They feed on Leaf Miners and will help keep them under control. In the course of their 4 week life span they will eat about 300 Miners.

• Neem oil is another effective treatment you can use on Miner control in your gardens. Get a spray that contains Neem oil and apply it to your effected plants. It will disrupt the growing cycle of the Miners by stopping them from eating, flying or mating.

Leaf Miners usually won't kill an entire plant but the leaves will be an eye sore to look at as the miners are eating their way through the leaves until they are big enough to fly away. They can also reduce the amount of veggies you get from your crop so it's important to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Have you found other ways of controlling these common garden pests? Let us know here.

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