Life miners

I am plagued by leaf miners on my citrus trees. No insecticides seem to work. The leaves curl and eventually fall off. Hardly produce any oranges.

The trees are only 25 years old. May have to cut them all down, unless there is an alternative.

Reply to
Walter R.
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Sorry, the subject was leaf miners, not life miners.

Reply to
Walter R.

Hi

Thanks for all the URL's. However, I could not find a reference to citrus leaf miners.

Reply to
Walter R.

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some more info at:
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Reply to
Charles

Thank you, Charles. That was a very informative article from the UC Davis

Reply to
Walter R.

they seem to be a good school, and have more interest than most in making information public.

Reply to
Charles

[snip]

Actually, leaf miners shouldn't ordinarily be an overall threat to a citrus tree. Normally they're an appearance problem only. When a homeowner's tree of 15-25 years age goes into decline, it frequently is one which is receiving too much water over a prolonged period of time. A young tree can agressively put out new roots to replace those that succumb to root rot (too much water) Eventually, as the tree ages, the roots start losing ground to the rot and the tree dies.

If the tree is a dooryard tree or in your landscaping (and your lawn and landscaping is doing OK) then the citrus is getting too much water. A St. Augustine lawn requires much more water than a citrus tree can handle over a period of years. If this is your situation, if you can close off any sprinklers near your citrus and remove any mulch you may have around the roots (out to the drip line) you may be able to dry out and save the tree. Regards --

Reply to
JimR

Citrus leaf miners are a relatively recent pest to blight Australian citrus. I have no idea how commercial farms control it; but the insect is difficult to get at because it's protected from sprays by the transparent waxy coat on citrus leaves since it lives in the green cells sandwiched between the waxy coats. I expect that a chemical method would have to be systemic to be effective; but as I said I don't know.

For the home gardener, local tv and radio gardening programs recommend a fortnightly spraying with PestOil (TM) or EcoOil (TM). These are oil emulsions which don't carry the same risk as ordinary white oil; the risk being that a sunny day after a spraying of White Oil can cause catastrophic leaf loss of citrus. I think the way PestOil works is that the temporary oil coating on the leaf suffocates the insect, so you must spray both sides of the leaf, and thoroughly, for it to be effective. Gardeners report that not only does the oil control the miners, but it seems to keep the trees free of aphids and scale, into the bargain, provided you keep up the fortnightly regimen throughout the year.

There is a likelihood that these oils may not be available outside Australia, or they may be but marketed under different names. Perhaps other readers can offer help here?

Reply to
John Savage

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