[hubballi]

I have it again in my beetroot. Leaf minor is back and it's rampant. I keep snipping off each leaf as well as squashing the beggers inside the leaf so why do they continue to get worse and how can I stop them ?

Thanks.

[hubballi]

Surely someone here has heard of leaf minor ? It's getting out of control.

[gillie]

I think you mean this: Mangold fly or Beet leaf miner:

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/techniques/pests/mangold_fly.htm

I have never had any problems with them.

Gillie

[Salmo]

The beet will usually grow away from the damage, but if the miners infest when the plants are very small, or in great numbers, or the crop is not growing fast, as in hot dry conditions, then they are worth doing something about. The blistered leaves usually look worse than they are.

Beet leaf miners pupate in the soil over Winter. The flies hatch and lay their white, elongated eggs on the undersides of beet leaves in late April/early May. The maggots hatch and burrow into the leaves where they live and feed in burrows between the layers of the leaf. When they are fully grown they drop into the soil and pupate. There may be 2 or 3 generations in a season but it is the early generation that can be damaging to the small beet.

Your plan of attack should be
 -Grow your beet as far away from the site last years crop as posible.
 -Where the beet has been grown cultivate the soil in Spring to allow birds access to   the pupae. It may also help to cultivate the soil when it is frosty to expose the pupae.
 -Look on the undersides of leaves and rub out the eggs.
 -Squidge the maggots in the leaves.

[hubballi]

These white eggs are on my perpetual spinach too.

[hubballi]

I have gone out and rubbed off all the white eggs from the leaves but I go out the next day and there are just as many again. How long does this thing go on laying for as it's pretty demoralising, especially when I have such a small garden to grow and don't have the luxury of growing far away from last years crop.

[mobilekat]

Think I have the same thing on my swiss chard...

Is there any thing that can be used to kill/prevent this- frustratingly its on plants that are in pots, so I am suspicious of the compost having been contaminated....

[hubballi]

I have raised beds, plants in other containers and it affects them all. Not all the soil is the same source. It's a pain in the bum. It affects chard, beetroot and spinach (up to now)

[hubballi]

Still laying eggs. How long more will they be doing this ?

[oldcow]

I have them on my peppers. As soon as I put them out, the leaf miners started laying eggs on the underside of the leaves. They don't seem interested in any other plant. One day I kept removing the eggs and finding them again after a few hours - I must have removed eggs 4 times in one day... Talk about persistence...

[Shop Keep]

Hubballi, I'm in the same boat as you. This is the first year my garden has been cultivated and these little blighters are running riot on my beetroot large and small. 
I'm going to keep on squishing them untill I get fed up

[JayG]

I usually sow spinach beet and swiss chard somewhere around July/August and they are alway infested with these beasties, to the extent that the leaves are virtually unuseable (too much added protein for me!)

I really grow them to over-winter so that I can get some early spring leaves from them before they bolt; the spring growth doesn't seem to be affected by miners.

An article HERE may be of some help.

[SarahB]

If it's a fly, perhaps netting is an option?  You'd have to start with clean compost though...

[hubballi]

I have fleeced the spinach and keep cutting off the leaves infected and squashing them so they don't end up back in the soil. It seems to help but I really hate those flies.

[stentman]

I have the darn things aswell. But it makes no sense to me. I moved into this house in April the rear garden was previoously set up for children i.e. lots of grass a few flower beds and no veggie area at all. I turned the rear third into a few veg patches and set to. Most of my beets are where a large circular kids tramopline was positioned bolted too some railway sleepers and placed on top of an big old tarp. Nothing had grown there or even seen the light of day for at least 3 years. My other beet bed was lawn 3 months ago. The trampoline beet are planted into the garden soil, the ex-lawn bed is a mix of old leaf mulch, new compost and garden soil. Yet after reading this thread I checked my beet. 75% of my beet have lots of little road maps across some of the leaves. All the beet on my lotty is fine. (I like beetroot) I definatley have the beasties so what now? This evening I have diligently cut off all the affected leaves and been a tad more robust in my thinning than usual, to reduce the amount of targets. There seems little else I can do. Any suggestions?