google "leaf miners"

I get that on my tomatoes, and sometimes on my peppers.

Yep. Leafminers. Usually damage is just cosmetic. Squish the leaves in between your fingers.

Click on the link and click on the "natural parasites" link under solutions.

Here is a link that might be useful: leafminers

I am not ab advocate of chemical use but that is why I use a systemic product that I place directly in the grpund before planting seeds or plants. It continues to kill pests for the life of the plant. As stated the leaf miner is more cosmetic than damaging to your plant.

don't use a systemic with plants that you plant on eating fruits from. that's for ornamentals only.

Tip Top Bio-get wasps.

Holy crap!
$80.00 a pack....

http://gardeningzone.com/search?q=leaf+miner+control&top-search-submit=Search

As a side note,in my garden they are killing plants.
Leafless plants die...
The miners also weaken my plants so they get diseases too.
The only thing so far that I've tried is pulling all the leaves they've attacked and destroying the leaves in case eggs or larva are still in them.
I left them alone all summer,now I have so many leaf miners my plants are either sick or leafless.

They especially like my Manzanos the best.
Might be due to thicker,bigger, juicier leaves to eat.
I don't know.
I'm overwintering hardly anything this year.
I have introduced several good guys in my garden over the years.
So far I haven't seen anything but japanese beetles ,leaf miners and broad mites in years.
This year is the first time I see such massive leaf miner damage.
I read that the adults are in the moth family,tried BT-didn't work.
There is a nematode that is supposed to work too.

http://www.tiptopbio.com/steinernema_carpocapsae.html

I'll probably try them first...

http://gardeningzone.com/products/nematodes-steinernema-carpocapsae-for-flea-tick-control

Added + is they eat other stuff too.

If nothing else,check out the Tech. bulletins.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tip top bio

This post was edited by smokemaster_2007 on Fri, Nov 15, 13 at 19:44

Woohooman,

What is meant by cosmetic damage? That this damage wont affect fruit production even if I let the mined leaves and the miners stay on?

At the moment, the plants are placed in a place that is out of sight and hence I am not so much worried about appearance.

Not woohoo but,

... cosmetic damage means it may look bad but the plant is otherwise okay.

But as has been pointed out, leafminers can kill a plant. This is especially true with seedlings as they have few leaves to spare.

No need to crush entire leaves. If you catch the damage early, look closely and you'll be able to find the larvae inside the mine -- they feed between the upper and lower layers of the leaf. Squish the larva inside the mine.

As had been said, also look for eggs on the underside of the leaves. Squish those before they hatch.

Everything Jean said.

However, I've yet to see miner damage do too much to any veggy other than cucurbits. I've read that spinosad will control them temporarily, but they come back in larger populations because the spinosad will kill the natural parasites too. So, the best way to control them is through an IPM program. I'm surprised to hear smokemaster have such problems with them since I'm only a couple hours south of him and he's a pretty strong advocate of biocontrol himself.

Smoke: I know you don't like to grow anything but chiles, but you gotta grow some flowers to attract and KEEP your beneficial populations hanging around.

Kevin

Mc Donolds is next door,
They have all kinds of flowers around the parking lot.
I think when my garden runs out of stuff for my good guys to eat they go there.
Either way,most anything I've introduced so far seems to come back to eat the bad guys.

I haven't seen an Aphid in years after releasing wasps.

I think lacewings gotta be gods gift to the gardener.
They kick butt.
Like you suggested,flowers / pollen is needed to make some guys reproduce.
Won't lay eggs without it.
Adult lacewings need to feed to lay eggs...
Mc D takes care of that.
Flowers etc. 30 ft away.
PLUS the good guys are into tracking down the bad guys.
I read my cyrphid flies can detect the honey from an aphid from hundreds of feet away.
I believe it,haven;t seen an Aphid in years that wasn't hit up by a wasp.
My pot garden is on asphalt.
No soils around or plants for that matter.

I think my problem with miners this year is because my plants are basically pest free,thus the good guys had nothing to eat-hung out at McD's.
SO the few nasties I have had no competition from other nasties-free reign.

I probably screwed up at the same time.
I had jury duty for 5 weeks this spring.
Normally I'd have released nematodes at that time for grubs etc.
By the time I got through with jury duty it was too hot for nematodes to be released.
I had put out my starts just before jury duty,most died from lack of water etc.
My plants are used to my schedule,I work graveyard.
They were used to dark thirty care and late noon care.
I worked days during a critical time and lost 75% of my starts at a min. this last season.

I think the miner problem is because the nematodes die in hot pots.
I usually release them in march-april or so.
They stop any problems before they get out of hand.

First year in 2-3 I see cutworms,,japanese beetles and a few other things nematodes control when I release them in early spring.
Had Termites this year too.Nematodes I thought got rid of them years ago.
I just screwed up this year,couldn't take care of biz when it needed to be taken care of.

Catch up sucks.

Ya I like the Bio stuff.
In the long run it's cheaper and lasts years,not just a season.
The Aphid wasps I got at least 4 yrs ago and I love still seeing them around.Syrphid flies are here in numbers.Got them at least 5 yrs ago.

Green lacewings are forever once you release them.

Poisons suck,they kill specific stuff that opens the door to other stuff to over run your garden.

Whatever I've spent on the good guys has lasted years.Poisons are WAY more expensive and don't do the job my good guys do over the long run.
I eat enough crap from the grocery store with chemicals in it,at least my peppers don't have the same crap in them.
Plus I like watching Syrphid fly larva hunting stuff down on my plants.
Love watching a wasp laying eggs in an aphid.Seeing a group of aphids doing the tuna shuffle when the eggs start eating them out.
Aphids will all dance in rythym for whatever reason after they are injected with an egg.
Also a wasp won't lay an egg in an aphid that already has an egg in it.
Pretty cool stuff to check out.
Nature at it's best.
I read about it,then saw it...

Ahh. OK. Must be nice, smoke. I wouldn't think nematodes would survive in containers, because of the reasons you mentioned. I think that they're going to be my new addition to my IPM program. At least for my in-ground garden.

I agree. Doing the bio thing is way more effective(success and cost) than using sprays and dusts.

Kevin