How to treat leaf miners naturally in your plants

If you find white trails or pale blotches on the leaves of your plants, you probably have leaf miners. Leaf miners are one of the species of insects whose larva lives in plant tissues and feeds on them. The most common leaf-mining insects include moths (Lepidoptera), sawflies and flies(Diptera). Leaf miners emerge as adults in spring and find a suitable leaf to lay their eggs. Eggs are laid within the leaf or on the leaf’s surface. Once the eggs are hatched the larvae feed on the leaves for 2 to 3 weeks before they drop on the ground to become pupae.

Leaf miners attack the vegetable plants grown in gardens. They also attack the leaves of trees and shrubs. Although leaf miners are not life-threatening to the plants, they become a problem when they attack leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and Swiss chard. You will not want to eat what these larvae have fed upon.

Ways to Treat Leaf Miners naturally:

1. Remove affected leaves

If you find some leaves that have been attacked by leaf miners, remove those leaves and dispose of them. Do not add them to the compost as the pupae can start living in the compost.

2. Rotate the plants regularly

It is important to rotate the plants regularly, especially when the leaf miners have already eaten leafy vegetables. When you rotate the vegetables every time, leaf miners will find it difficult to locate your leafy vegetables.

3. Introducing Diversity

Try growing a variety of plants in your garden, instead of growing a single crop in a small space. When you grow different species of herbs, flowers, and vegetables in a small space it can attract beneficial insects that will prey upon these pests.

4. Use Row covers

Using row covers on your plants can prevent adults from laying eggs on the plant’s leaves. But if there were leaf miners in the garden in the previous year row covers may not be useful. This is because the pupae will already be in the soil and they can easily infect the leaves although you use a row cover.

5. Till the ground

After the harvesting period is over in the fall season, remove the plant and till the soil. This kills the pupae in the soil and kills the life cycle of a leaf miner for some time.

6. Neem Oil

Another natural way to treat leaf miners is by using neem oil. Spraying neem oil directly on the affected leaves of a plant halts the growth and reproduction of leaf miners. Spraying neem oil once a week can help to control leaf miners.