I have tried neem oil with spinosad and the citrus leaf miner still seems to damage the leaves on my citrus trees.

My best defense has been to promote flushing of new leaves in the early spring when citrus leaf miner is not active. Then they don't have a chance to damage the leaves.

Promote flushing?

Could you please elaborate? The miners disfigured my trees so bad I want to make sure I control it this year. All my trees have exploded with new growth and I don't want them to get infected again.

You can treat Citrus Leafminers (CLM) with a combination of Volk oil and Spinosad, but you're going to need to spray very three weeks during your CLM season. The other option is to treat with systemic imidicloprid (Bayer Advanced Fruit and Vegetable Insect Control). Not organic, but very effective on CLM. Just need to apply 2 or 3 weeks before CLM hits in your area, to give it time to get up to the leaves. Then, a second treatment about 4 to 6 months later.

Patty S.

Econ, did you mix the spinsad and neem oil? It sounds like that's what you're saying, but you're supposed to use them separately - neem one week, spinosad the next, and keep it up for several weeks.

Patty, I was wondering if you could use imidicloprid on them, that's what we have to use for chili thrips on roses, and the roses don't take up enough to bother the bees, so I don't see how it could get into fruit, since it only lasts 6 weeks or so, and if applied now, it would be gone before fruit are an appreciable size.

Thanks for all the replies. I checked this stuff out: Bayer Advanced Fruit and Vegetable Insect Control on Patty's recommendation. If it works as advertised, it should be awesome. I am going to try it this week.

I alternated spinosad and neem oil every 7-10 days starting in late spring. Still got plenty of damage. I think it was just too hard for me to get 100% coverage on bushy trees.with leaves twisting in every direction.

Some advice I was given when purchasing the spinosad at Grangettos, a farm and garden supply store, was to pinch off the flushes of new growth instead of wasting time spraying.

I didn't do it initially because my trees were too young and I wanted them to put on some size. Now I encourage new growth in the early spring by fertilizing more at that time. The new growth has enough time to harden off before the leaf miners show up. Then fertilize less in the summer and fall, pinching new growth off at that time.

if you are sick of spraying for citrus leaf miner it is a possible alternative to consider.

This post was edited by econ0003 on Mon, Apr 15, 13 at 1:53

Pinching off the new growth sounds like a good idea!

Luckily, I don't have CLM here in Guatemala; but I have been told that the CLM just laughs at imidacloprid...could be the strength that the home gardener can buy. Imidacloprid lasts 6 months as a systemic; I give it to my Meyers twice per year, partly as a "protection" against a possible incursion of ACP (asian citrus psyllid), vector of HLB (Citrus greening); it only kills leaf chewing/sucking insects and mostly leaves the beneficials alone.