This MF leaf miners are destroying my tomato plants. Is there any way to get rid of them without contaminating my fruit with chemical pesticides?
I can't remove the affected leaves because all leaves are affected, and there's hundreds of them. I tried neem oil, but it didn't do anything. From Colombia
by FGpositivo
6 Comments
Fit_Extension971
In your case, pruning heavily infested leaves is a must followed by systemic pesticide application. Spinosad,an organic remedy could help reduce the number of Leafminer larvae; the problem is the caterpillars reside within the leaf tissue rendering contact pesticides inefficient. Neem oil is beneficial early in the season before signs of infestation are visible. You could also setup sticky and pheromone traps next tomato season to keep everything in control. Thanks
Sad-Shoulder-8107
Spray the plants with BTK. It’s not chemical, it’s a bacteria that stops larvae from feeding when they eat it, they starve and die. May be less effective against leafminers than cabbage moth caterpillars, but ive had decent success using it to control leafminers on my beets.
is it actually relevent? they usually dont do much damage. estimate the leaf area loss, it might only be a few percent. Thats like half a tomato less.
CitrusBelt
Meh….
An otherwise healthy tomato plant can shrug off a LOT of physical damage, and leaf miners are hard to treat for anyways.
In certain circumstances/locations they can be real problem, no doubt about that. But for most folks, most of the time, they can just be ignored. Especially on tomatoes (or anything else where you aren’t eating the leaves, so cosmetic damage doesn’t matter)
I hesitate to say without seeing pics of the whole plants….but good odds that you’re worrying about “destruction” that isn’t even worth noticing, much less treating.
6 Comments
In your case, pruning heavily infested leaves is a must followed by systemic pesticide application. Spinosad,an organic remedy could help reduce the number of Leafminer larvae; the problem is the caterpillars reside within the leaf tissue rendering contact pesticides inefficient. Neem oil is beneficial early in the season before signs of infestation are visible. You could also setup sticky and pheromone traps next tomato season to keep everything in control. Thanks
Spray the plants with BTK. It’s not chemical, it’s a bacteria that stops larvae from feeding when they eat it, they starve and die. May be less effective against leafminers than cabbage moth caterpillars, but ive had decent success using it to control leafminers on my beets.
Try https://www.naturesgoodguys.com
is it actually relevent? they usually dont do much damage. estimate the leaf area loss, it might only be a few percent. Thats like half a tomato less.
Meh….
An otherwise healthy tomato plant can shrug off a LOT of physical damage, and leaf miners are hard to treat for anyways.
In certain circumstances/locations they can be real problem, no doubt about that. But for most folks, most of the time, they can just be ignored. Especially on tomatoes (or anything else where you aren’t eating the leaves, so cosmetic damage doesn’t matter)
I hesitate to say without seeing pics of the whole plants….but good odds that you’re worrying about “destruction” that isn’t even worth noticing, much less treating.
That’s not the only thing he is destroying.