Leaf miner misery

[Marb67]

Well I am getting really fed up with the increasing amount of leaf miner that seems to be not only affecting my Spinach, Beetroot, chard plants but now even my oxeye daisy,cherry tree and honeysuckle leaves at an astonishing rate.

What can I do to stop it please ?

[TattyJJ]

Pretty sure I have the same problem, they are taking over my lettuce!

[Jungle Jane]

Are you removing the leaves with trails on & squashing the maggots inside the leaf,that's all I do. Reduce the amount so they don't all grow into flies & lay more eggs. Leaf miners didn't affect my rocket when it was growing next to spring onions,French marigold & tomato,but when all that was harvested & it was just rocket left,the leaf miners attacked,it might all be luck but I think French marigolds help?

[Marb67]

Yes, I do remove every leaf and get rid of them in the garden waste bin.

[Jungle Jane]

Is the garden waste bin easy to fly out of if you can fly? Do you think they could be developing in there or are they definitely squashed,they do start off tiny? They could be like some butterflies,if they see eggs of another butterfly they'l go elsewhere to lay there eggs to give them a better chance of survival being the only eggs,I wonder if the leaf miner fly thinks that cherry tree is beautiful & untouched,I'l infest that & then every other plant after that,to improve their survival rate?

[Marb67]

Not sure as I thought there were different types of leaf miner for different plants. The beet miner used to be my worst but am covering them with that netting you get bags of logs in as I don't have any enviromesh.

[roitelet]

Old fine net curtains would be better the flys are tiny.

[Ovce domácí]

They mullered our leeks last year too. Planting late and harvesting early may be the fix for that in my case.

[CaptainBurrito]

Get rid of infected leaves and patrol every second day with scotch tape to get the eggs underneath leaves. Other than that i stopped growing chard / beetroot as it wasn't worth the effort.