A couple of weeks ago this started happening to our beet leaves…
The damage wasn’t everywhere, but it was definitely an issue. So, after help from fellow bloggers after this post and a little research, this is what I’ve learned about leaf miners:
- They are actually the larvae of several different species of insects…usually moths and flies
- They live in and eat the tissue of the leaves of the plants on which they’ve been laid
- Living within the leaves protects them from predators
- Their mining can leave large blotching or tunneling patterns on the leaves
- Insecticides can be used, but even the organic varieties are bad for the plants and the bees
I think that we have Spinach Leafminers and have found the following information here:
Spinach leafminers. The only insect that regularly mines edible parts of plants is the spinach leafminer (Pegomya hyoscyami), which produces large, dark blotchmines in leaves of spinach, beets, and related weeds. Adults are small gray flies, about half the size of a house fly and they emerge in spring to lay eggs on the underside of leaves. The eggs of this insect are quite distinctive, being white and laid in small masses. Problems are most common in gardens where spinach and beets are overwintered and continuously grown, providing host plants for the insects. Injuries most commonly occur in spring but there are two or more generations produced during the growing season.
No controls for the vegetable leafminers are recommended. Many insecticides have poor activity against these insects and often insecticide applications will make problems worse, by differentially destroying natural enemies.
Spinach leafminers pose different problems as they appear on edible crops. In gardens the most simplest and most effective means of controlling this insect is to regularly check the plants for the presence of eggs, which can be hand crushed. Leaves with actively growing larvae should be picked and destroyed; leaving picked leaves on the ground will allow the larvae to finish development.
Ah…yes. And they’ve now found our Chard.
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| The front of one of our chard leaves |
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| The back of the same leaf. Notice the white dots? |
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| Yep…we have a cluster of eggs… |
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| …and another cluster… |
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| …and another cluster, They’re all over 🙁 |
So, apparently the options are to:
- pull everything out and get rid of it/feed it all to the chickens (the chickens love these infected leaves, by the way…protein anyone?)
- pull off the affected leaves and get rid of them, then check for eggs on the backs of the healthy leaves every few days and squash them when you find them (I like to do this when I’m washing the leaves…it feels less…gross)
Regardless, they have to be taken care of or you will definitely lose everything. Happy squashing!
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Oh no! UGH! That stinks!!
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