Usually, leaf miner damage is of little significance to tomatoes and other crops. Looks bad, but the foliage can still do the work that it is supposed to do.

Neem oil is reputed to prevent the adult insects from laying her eggs on or in the leaf. You might want to try that to see if you can detect a decrease in activity. Personally, I don't worry about leaf miners on veggies.

Citrus leaf miners can be controlled with Spinosad spray.
I'm going to try it on the leaf miners on my squash. I'll report back with results.

I have to disagree that leaf miners "would be of any consequence on a veggie". They are very consequential on leaf veggies - chard, spinach, etc. I have had entire beds ruined because of them. The best thing you can do is cover the bed with a fine mesh, and hope for the best!

If anyone else has a better solution, I would love to hear it!

Thanks, Kathy

Leaf miners can create havoc with the selling value of leafy vegetables, but for plant life they do not have much affect. If you have problems with leaf miners on leafy vegetables that you will use or sell then the only real solution is to use floating row covers to keep the adult from getting there to lay the eggs that hatch into the larva that burrow into the leaf. Spraying anything to try to control these wee buggers is largely a waste of your time, energy, and money since once Ma lays the egg and that egg hatches and that larva is inside the leaf there is nothing that will reach it, and once that larva is inside the leaf the damage is done anyway.

ok thanks i may try the neem oil or just leave it

What about using BT on the plants to control leaf miners?

Bacillus thuringiensis - Kurstaki, BtK, is effective only against leaf munching insects on the outside of the leaf. There is no way for that bacterium to get into the leaf where the miners are. Leaf miners are not listed, anywhere I can find, as a target of Bt.

This post was edited by kimmsr on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 7:22