Ana's notes: It is important to differentiate leafmining flies and leafmining caterpillars, since the management of the two groups of pests is different. The leafminers attacking coffee, cotton, groundnut, soybean and citrus are caterpillars, not leafmining flies. Some work was done on neem for control of leafminers on tomatoes some years back, but it was not published. I am looking for it; it should be added when available.
Leafminers (Liriomyza spp. and Chromatomyia horticola)
Leafminers are major pests of peas. The maggots mine on leaves and pods. Mining of leaves affect the photosynthetic capacity of the plant. Mining of pods causes cosmetic damage leading to rejection of pods in varieties grown for their tender green pods such as snow peas and sugarsnap peas.
- Conserve natural enemies. Parasitic wasps usually keep leafminers under control. Avoid use of pesticides that kill these wasps and other natural enemies. For more information on natural enemies click here
- If necessary spray crop with neem products. For more information on neem click here
