White spots on parsley leaves.

[rollinghills]

Can someone tell me what's causing these whitish/slightly off white spots on my parsley? It can't be rubbed off. This is in a indoor container. Thank you.

[applestar]

They look a bit like leaf miner damage. Can you get a in-focus magnified view of the black/dark green specks?

Another way us to put this leaf in a zip bag or a jar and see what if anything might come out.

In any case, I would remove the affected leaves and despose in tightly closed bag, etc. How much of the entire plant us affected?

...question -- why does it look like the leaf has some kind of dried white residue on it? Did you spray with something?

[rollinghills]

It's seemingly impossible to get a crystal clear shot this close with my camera. Here's the best looking one. I don't spay anything.



Almost all the leaves are affected to varying degrees. I do see these bugs here and there but I don't see a big amount of these bugs. Are they responsible for the white spots?

[applestar]

Ooh! If you look closely, that looks very much like a fly in metamorphosis. It's very possible it is a leafminer fly.

Here's a photo from a page in Flickr hivemind that looks similar:

[rollinghills]

I think those are wings on the bug. It's definitely doesn't move like a worm.

[applestar]

Yep. There are two main kinds of leafminers -- fly maggots and moth caterpillars. I think it's possible you have the fly maggot kind. When these larvae have fed between the leaves until mature, they come out and metamorphose into the pupa -- typically, before the pupae darken and harden, they briefly take on the adult shape. I think that's what we're seeing in your photo.

[Juliuskitty]

I think that bug is a thrip. Thrips do eat a carved out little area on a leaf, then move and do it again. They call them leaf scars. Thrips come in lots of colors from white to black.

[applestar]

Oh interesting! I'm not very familiar with thrips (obviously) even though they do occur in NJ.

[Juliuskitty]

I wish I wasn't familiar with them. Here we have every kind of detrimental bug and microbial pathogen possible, all surrounded by rain and heat and humidity.
Back on Thrips, they have a lovely little virus associated with them for tomato plants, it's Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, very contagious and incurable. It only takes one thrip feeding for about 15 minutes to give it to your plant. Then it or another thrip feeds on that plant and the tomato plant next to it, and so on...