Paper hole punch -- a new idea to combat leafminers :)

[applestar]

As you may know, I'm growing tomatoes indoors this winter as continuing NEW EXPERIMENT to find best variety to grow in the cooler temp, limited sunlight, constrained space available.

When you grow plants indoors, you end up with a variety of regular suspect insects pests -- namely, red spider mites, aphids, whiteflies. Scale insects too but they don't seem to bother tomatoes. Aphids may have come in with plants that had vacationed outside in the summer and were brought in for the winter, but in my house, the main culprit for aphid infestation is ants. They actually keep some in special chambers their underground colonies, and bring them out to pasture when the scouts find good "pasture sites"... And during brief winter thaws, they venture out and deposit as many aphids as they can bring, presumable so they would multiply and be there for milking when the workers can come around again

Well, anyway I got off the track
This winter's tomatoes became infested with leafminers... Starting with a plant that was sitting by the window. I don't know if the moth (I think it's a moth -- I'll go check in a minute) got in from the window or if some had hatched out from the container soil. But I didn't realize at first -- not something I would normally look out for.

Though I've been pretty diligent since the discovery, I think there has been at least one more generation because I'm finding new tiny infestation on other tomato plants. But OK HERE's my point after all that long-winded background

-- I didn't think of this in all the times I've looked at leafminer doodles and spots in leaves while outside, but being indoors, it occurred to me that a tool at my disposal to combat the earliest leafminers infestation on a leaf was to use a PAPER HOLE PUNCH TO PUNCH OUT the clear spots in the inaccessible middle of the leaves. Every leaf is precious on the slow growing plants and I don't want to remove any more leaf surface than I need to. It's working like a charm.

I have the standard handheld 1/4" round hole punch with 1" reach. I'm going to get another hole puncher with 2" reach and maybe look for larger punch shapes as well. I will be ready for the 2013 season.

Tomato Leafminer Moth Tuta abosluta

Image Citation:(?) Marja van der Straten, NVWA Plant Protection Service, Bugwood.org
https://www.invasive.org/browse/detail.c ... um=5432149

[LA47]

That's a good way to control them and totally organic too! I'll keep that in mind. With my mind though, I'm glad I can access this info later.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Apple, I like it. Great idea.

How about a soldering iron. Burns a hole and cauterize at the same time.

Eric

[Francis Barnswallow]

Leaf miners are going crazy on my tomatoes too, as well as army worms. Imagine that, army worms in mid December. Oiy!!!

With that said I've had my beyond unfair share of leaf miners. I just squish em' with my thumbnail.


Putting an end to them on the leaves via Hole Puncher is also an interesting idea.

[ElizabethB]

You are so clever

Thanks for sharing that great

[Garf]

Is it working?

[rico fry]

to kill most insects with no chmicals
no affect to the plant all u need is
rubarb leaves put them in cheese cloth
even pantyhose works put that in a large pot at least 1 gallon
fill the pot three quarters full with water bring
to a boil and sit and let it cool with the leave bag in
then put in spray bottle and spray affected plants as needed

[rainbowgardener]

But use with some caution. It is an insecticide and it is toxic. If pets or children ingest it, it would be harmful. Active ingredient is oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is nice as an insecticide, because it breaks down quite quickly in the environment, within about 24 hrs. It is actually used, in very SMALL quantities, to treat honeybees for the varroa mites. But something like 1/2 mg of oxalic acid can be lethal to a honeybee, so you don't want to spray it directly on a bee. Works best on soft-bodied leaf eaters like aphids.

Like any spray, it is less likely to be effective against leaf miners, because they are protected inside the leaf. Mainly would work if you can catch the adult fly.

https://www.chileanjar.cl/files/V72I2Y2012CJAR11218.pdf (re honeybees and oxalic acid)

[applestar]

Is it working?

It definitely works. The tricky part for me was learning WHERE to punch when the caterpillars are too small to really see. Sometimes, I'd find a few days later that I'd missed and the miner has been chewing around some more. When they are big enough to feel, squishing inside the leaf has been quicker.

[applestar]

Here's a leaf. You can see the three holes where I successfully punched out the caterpillars while they were still little, and one that I missed and grew large enough to need squishing:


I like that most of the eaf is preserved with this method.

[gixxerific]

Good idea Apple, wha't a few holes here and there now versus total leaf loss later. As well as further infestation.