Sure, it should be a last resort, and only in the case of a serious infestation. In the photo above, there was a row of young oleander plants that were supposed to turn into a hedge. We hand-picked every day for about a week, getting rid of a lot of cats. Each day produced more, not fewer, on every plant. (another thing of note with these moths is that their silk is a dark color, so it looks like matted black hair. :-) ) A light spot treatment with Bt stopped the cycle that season, and the plants are now huge and are full of these cats each summer. The plants all would have died if not for the intervention that first year. Of course, please don't spray anything near the passionvine. The ones eating that are frittilaries. If you want to control what they are eating, start hand raising them and then you can select the leaves that they eat.

Bulldog, njoasis mentioned something that he does that is VERY important that many Northern folks mess up with when growing Valencia indoors. Not with all Citrus, like Key Lime and Meyers Lemon, but WITH VALENCIA, I have found that you HAVE to give Valencia a cooling off period. I had my tree for two years in Zone 5 Kansas. I asked a guy in Florida what I was doing wrong. I told him that I would bring it in, in October and set in inside in a warm spot in the house. It would lose ALL it's leaves, then I would put it out again in March and it would leaf, but not flower. He Suddenly stopped me and told me to, "DO NOT BRING IT IN AND LEAVE IT IN A HEATED HOUSE". He informed me that the furnace heat in the house makes the air far too dry for the tree, and it actually needs temps around 40 degrees with no watering. I thought he was badly mistaken, but I had nothing to lose since I had the tree for 2 years and NOTHING. So I put the tree out in the garage and forgot about. I went to look at the tree in the back of my garage in March and to my surprise, I had lost MAYBE 5 leaves all together. By late March I had about 50 blooms on a 3' tree. As of today (Jan 2, 2008) I have 7 Valencia oranges that will be ready to pick in a month or so. If you have a garage, set it out there RIGHT NOW and forget about it. I know it sounds dumb, but it works.

Let me add to John's excellent advice - I agree, not a fan of MG, and it's really not organic. Frankly, all non-organic fertilizers become organic as the break down. You don't need to use nearly as much with a non-organic product (so you save $$$$), and as long as you're giving your trees enough water, any salts from non-organic fertilizers that might possibly build up will be leeched out. Vigoro Citrus/Avocado is fine, but I do prefer Gro Power Citrus & Avocado Food. It contains a large amount of humic acid, which is very helpful if you live in S. California or AZ (you don't say where you live in you GW signature). Watering 24 inches is plenty - citrus feeder roots exist in the top 18 to 24" of soil. Also, you need to remove the grass from under your trees. Grass will compete with the Nitrogen, which is what looks like is happening to your trees. Citrus are heavy nitrogen feeders and so is grass. I agree with John, looks a bit like salt burn, but I also think you need some micronutrients as well. You can apply Grow More Citrus Grower's Blend as a foliar spray or soil drench to really give your trees a micronutrient boost. I haven't tried Bayer Bayfolan Forte, so I'll have to check that product out, John, thanks for the suggestion. We typically see this here in my area in January through February, when we get our cold rains. That causes our micronutrients to be locked out, and washed away, so you may see your citrus, especially the young citrus, get a little chlorotic looking. Make sure your trees are being drip watered, and not being watered by overhead sprinklers. Citrus trees do not like their trunks constantly wet. And for us here in S. Calif, our fertilizing times are March through October, to avoid flushing during times when we might still get a frost, thus damaging that new flush that can occur when you fertilize. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: UC Davis: Backyard Orchard - Citrus

From your description I just have a feeling there's something other than leaf miner curling the leafs. But it should be pretty easy to tell, the leaf miner tracks are very easy to spot on the underside of the leaves. And although the young leaves are shiny, the area with tracks loses the shininess so it can be seen quickly. If few of the curled leaves have the serpentine tracks, it may be something else. The older infected leaves are usually more distorted, but still the tracks should be there. Leaf miner only starts on very young new leaves. If your tree is small you can do as I do, when the tree is flushing look at the underside of the new leaves (usually less than 1" long and shiny). The leaf miner larva can spend weeks creating these tracks, then weeks more out of the track in the pupal stage. If I remember correctly, the tracks always start next to the center line of the leaf, and wander all over, then end up at an outer edge. I've developed a light touch and when I see the beginning of track I just run my nail along it(if its at the center line), or my thumb...with some pressure, so I squish the larva where ever it is(usually at the end of the track, or the leaf's edge). If your tree is small (mine is in a 15 gal container), and you catch the outbreak early on, by killing the larva you stop their life cycle. If I spot a cycle beginning, I go out every day, or night, and only look at the underside of the new leaves. The slightly older and larger leaves may have a rolled edge with a pupa inside. Also easy to squish. The much older, distorted leaves with tracks, are usually after the fact, larva-wise. I've also tried an ultraviolet mosquito light, which catches many moths, but doesn't seem to stop the leaf miner moth. And I've tested the pheromone lures, which definitely trap the leaf miner moths when there are a lot of them around. This year, since my small Bearss Lime tree is when they start out, I'm just watching it closely...so far only found a few starting out and got them without breaking any leaves. John