Tiny thin white lines destroying tomato leaves!

14 years ago

Help! Something is eating away at my tomato leaves!

It first starts off as tiny, thin white lines (dead straight, NOT squiggly). Then the lines begin to become more prominent. And then eventually (enveloping the whole leaf) the lines "eat" all the way through the leaf, leaving behind "holes" and "cuts" in the leaf.

Basically by the end, the leaf looks as if someone had attacked it with a pair of scissors!! (reminds me of those paper doilies we used to make at school, by folding up a piece of paper and cutting bits out of it.)

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Comments (5)

anney
14 years ago
Though I've never heard of leaf miners making straight lines, there are 400 varieties of them, and not all of them make squiggly lines. I don't know of any other insect that makes lines in leaves OTHER than leaf miners.

According to Wikipedia, "The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths (Lepidoptera) and flies (Diptera), though some beetles and wasps also exhibit this behavior."

About all you can do to decide about their control is keep a watch out for the insects that lay the leaf-miners. You don't give a state or zone, which might be helpful for zeroing in on which insect to research.
carolyn137
14 years ago
Anney, I was going to answer this post suggesting leaf miners but in fact I didn't know that some of them did burrow inside the leaf in straight lines.

Where can I find that information?. Until now the only pictures I've seen have been the typical squiggly white lines on the leaf surface.

Carolyn
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anney
14 years ago
Carolyn

I'm not sure I've seen any pictures of leaf miner damage with only straight lines, but the link below shows some straight lines in the overall pattern. That may be a banana leaf, though I'm unsure about it. The picture is of a leaf miner found in Costa Rica, but with more than 400 varieties, there may be a few who do make straight lines.

From this site: Larvae hatched from insect eggs burrow into the leaf and travel within the leaf, feeding and burrowing.

The larva or pupa may be visible inside the leaf when held up to a light. The burrowed areas may appear as a spot, blister or as a straight or twisting line. Areas of the leaf may die and dry up.

Once feeding has been completed, white cocoons may be visible on the underside of the leaf (as with Apple Leaf Miner) or the larvae may fall to the ground to pupate within the leaf litter.

This paper describes the various "mines" of leafminers as serpentine, straight, or blotched.

That's why I wondered where isis is or what crops are grown nearby.

Here is a link that might be useful:
carolyn137
14 years ago
Thanks Anney. I don'thave time right now to check them out but will do so in the nezt few days.

Carolyn
anney
14 years ago
Ah, I clicked on Isis's name, and she says she lives in Germany!

I'll bet it's a leaf miner of some kind that we in the US don't usually see, Isis. If so, they're difficult to get rid of. The link below gives some recommendations that I assume would work for yours if that's what they are.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to get rid of leaf miners