Leaf Miner Control

Leaf Miner Control for your garden.

If you see squiggly lines throughout your plant’s leaves, you will have Leaf Miners.

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

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

Leaf Miner Control
Getting Rid of Leaf Miners

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

Keep an eye on your plants. At the first sight of a Leaf Miner, squish the plant leaf 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.

Leaf Miner will attack both health 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 Leaf Miners.

Another way to control Leaf 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 will eat about 300 Leaf Miners.

Neem oil is another effective treatment you can use for Leaf 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 and can reduce the amount of veggies you get from your crop so it's important to get rid of Leaf Miners as soon as possible.

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

More Common Garden Pests

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