5 STEPS To Control Leaf Miners – Organic & Homemade Leaf Miner Treatment (RESULTS ADDED)
Leaf Miners are The One Of The Most Common Pests, That Appears With Such Type of Leaf Pattrens. There Intense Attack Can Cause very Harmful Results On a Plant, So In This Post We Discover all Abour Leaf Miners, Including What are they, How They Spread, How You Can Control Them Etc. So keep Reading.
What are Leaf Miners?
So Leaf Miners Are Basically a Group Of Larvae That come From Different insects, But Have a Similar Habit Of Feeding On Plant Tissues, & Leaving Such Type of Trails Or So Called Mines, Inside The Leaf. & That’s The Reason Why They are Called as Leaf Miners.
They Have a Small Size & Cannat Be Seen With Naked Eye, But You Can Very Easily Identify Them With Such Type of Lines On your Plants Leaf. There Favourite feeding Place are The vegetative Parts of a Plant, as You Might Have Noticed, They attack Very Commonly On Younger leaves of Tomato Seedlings.
When They attack & How & On What Plants?
Leaf Miners attack Mostly Attack When The Season Is a Little Suitable For The Hatching Of Eggs, Their Parents Have Laid. A Warm & Humid Condition Is Ideal For the Hatching Of These eggs, & Once Hatched They Will Become The Larvae & Starts Eating The Inner Tissues of their Host Plant Leaves.
You Will See Leaf Miners attack In The Warm Months of The Year, Like In feb Or March & September or October etc, Whenever The Temperature Gets Ideal For Their Hatching. They can attack On Variety of Vegetables, Fruiting, Flowering & Ornamnetal Plants, Like Cutrus Trees, Tomatoes, Spinach, Lettuce, Apple Plant, Dahlia, Petunia Plant & So On. & The First Indication is Simply Such Leaf mines, Or Trails.
How Bad It Can get?
Leaf Miners By Themselves are Not Such a Big Problems, & Can Be Cured with a Few Easy Steps, But the affected plant Becomes Weaker & The Chance of Other Problems Rises Very Much & That Problems, Like Nutrients Deficiency, Seasonal Change, Others Pests Attack etc. Can be fatal.
So Overall You Should Take Them Seriously as Soon as The First sign Appears, Otherwise The Treatment Can Get even More Complex.
Preventive Measuresโฆ..
Now Lets Talk About Some of The preventive Meastures For These Common Pests. First as we Know They Rise From The eggs, We Can Simply Use an Insecticidal Soap Liquid, To Trap These Eggs & Destroy Them Before Even The Attack. Simply Use a Liter of Water & a Table Spoon of Liquid Soap In It, & spray It Over The Whole Plant From Top to Bottom At The evening Time.
You Can Do This Occasionally or Once a Month On all Type of Your Plants. Other Preventive Measures Include The use of a Good Fertilizer, So The Plant Will be Healthier & Can Fight The Attack By itself. Or Using a Good Soil mix, Or Choosing an Ideal & an Open area For The Plant, So Ideal Environment Never Comes, For the Hatching of Their eggs.
How to Treat Leaf Miners attack?
But Sometimes Weaker Plants, Do Get Their Attack, First The Plant Appears with a Few Lines On The Leaves, Then The Leaves may Turn Yellow & Then a Growth Slow Down. & This attack Will also Spread From One Plant To another, so Here are The 5 Steps To Treat Leaf miners in The First Place. Follow These Points one by One, & Your Plants Will be Healthier Again.
1-Move The Plant To a Semi Shaded area:
First Step of Leaf Miners Treatment is Simply Moving Your Infected Plant to a Semi Shaded area, Where Their is a Bright Light, But No Direct Sunlight On The plant. This will Help The Plant To Do a Little Rest & now It Wont Have any stress of Seasonal Intensity etc.
2-Remove all The Infected Leaves:
The next Step of Leaf miners Contol is The Removal of All The infected Leaves. Simply cutt all The Most Infected Leaves & make Sure To Dispose Them Properly, So The Leaf Miners Dont Go To Other Of Your Plants. You Can Burn Them, Or tightly Pack Them in a Plastic Bag & Throw Them In The Garbage etc. That’s Ok If Your Plants Have a Few less Infected leaves On Them.
3-Apply a Neem Oil Pesticide:
The next step in Leaf miner Treatment is the Neem Oil Spray making & Applying. Take a Liter of Simple Water in a Bottle, Mix a Table Spoon of Neem Oil In It, You can Also Buy It From This link. Now add a Table Spoon of Liquid Soap or Shampoo in this Water Bottle.
You can also use upto 2 Table Spoons of Neem Oil, if The pest attack is Intense. Mix this Solution Very Well & Now You Can Spray This Liquid All Over Your Infected as well as Healthy Plants. do This at the evening Time, every 3 days in case of Pest attack, & every two weeks If you are using it as A Prevention. A Detailed Guide on Neem Oil Pesticide is also Linked Here, Folow That To use This For Other Type of Pests Like aphids or Mealy bugs Etc.
4-Follow a Weekly Neem Oil Spray:
You Will see Within a Few Days, Your Plant Will Start Recovering, The New Leaves Will be Healthier & Growing. The Infected Leaves Wont Turn Normal Back, But new Growth will be Lush Green & Healthy. This way now You Can Use The same Neem Oil Spray Once A Week, & After wards Every Two Weeks.
5-Apply a Balanced Fertilizer:
The next step Of Leaf Miner Control is Finally Using a Good Fertilizer. This Will Help The Plant To Recover From any Nutritional Deficiency happened while The Attack. Like These Yellow Leaves etc.
You Should use a Small Dose This homemade powerful fertilizer, Its Basically For Heavy Feeder Plants, But Its Ok To use a Small Dose On Any Plant. A Detailed Guide On This is Linked Here Follow That. This way Now Your Plants will be all Back To their Normal State, If The Yellow Leaves Kept On Turning, You Can Follow a Guide on their Treatment From Here.
So Its all About Leaf Miners Treatment, they are easiest To Cure Pests, But If You are Dealing with Mealybugs, That are also Common, Here is a Complete Guide On Their step by step Treatment. Must Check It Out.