Sometimes we can observe irregular, twisted, oblong spots on the surface of leaves of various plants. These marks, called leaf mines, are caused by caterpillars, larvae or pupae of pests foraging on the leaf, which we can generalize asleaf mining pestsMines are usually filled with droppings sometimes arranged in a very regularly overlapping webs or circles. Mines clearly differ in color (they are rusty, brown, light yellow or colorless) from he althy leaf tissue. Here are some of these pests and how to deal with them."
Mining pests - traces of feeding on cherry leaves
The most popular mining pests
Toczyk puszowiaczek- a species often found on apple and pear trees, it is a tiny butterfly (with a wingspan of about 1 cm), after wintering in the form of a chrysalis under the bark of trees or in the litter Under the trees, this butterfly flies out during the green flowering period of the apple tree and after a few days lays tiny (invisible to the naked eye) eggs, caterpillars hatch from the eggs, which form small dark brown circular spots on the leaf during feeding, in spring this pest does not appear in great numbers, a large number of mines on leaves can be observed in summer, when the second generation of this pest develops,
Leukemia leaf beetle- a pest that mines leaves of both fruit trees and many ornamental trees and shrubs, a caterpillar feeding inside the leaf spins the thread that draws a mine, the leaf turns silvery on the underside, the effects of caterpillars can be seen from May but they appear most often in the second half of summer,
Horse chestnut horse moss- the caterpillars of this pest feed inside the chestnut leaves, gnawing the crumb between the veins, initially in a round form, then an oblong brown spot with an area of 4 to 8 cm², the first mines they appear around mid-May, one leaf may be from a few to even 300 minutes, damaged leaves fall prematurely (in mid-July) and chestnut trees re-bloom at the end of summer, trees are weakened, lose their decorative value, do not bloom and do not bind fruit in the following year, annual severe damage may lead to partial or complete dieback of trees
Snake-like decor- a small butterfly with a length not exceeding 5 mm, causes the formation of long (even up to 15 cm) mines present on the leaves of fruit trees, often mines surround even the entire leaf blade, we can watch all summer,
Vaginas(among others, the spotted mite, the blackberry sheath, the larch sheath) - leaf-mining species whose caterpillars construct a sheath from the cut fragments of leaves, which is their shelter and place of development, these pests form a small leaf on the leaves mines, limited to the size of the caterpillar's body, which, while feeding, only slightly protrudes from the sheath, the vaginas' mines are dark brown, first round, with time they take on an angular outline limited by the leaf veins, the larch vagina feeds slightly differently - its caterpillars appear in April and eat the center needles.
These are, of course, only a fewleaf-mining pests . In addition to the aforementioned pests, leaf miners may also be caused by leaf miners (e.g. greenhouse leaf miner, non-pickle leaf miner), apple grasshopper, and many other insects.
Leaf mining pest control
As a ruleleaf mining pestsare not very numerous and it is not necessary to combat them. In the orchard, pear beetle and leafworms may pose a threat, so you should systematically remove leaves infested with these pests. Removal of leaves is especially necessary in May and August. Due to the fact that the date of chemical control of pests of mining leaves is difficult to determine (they appear from spring all summer) and the harmfulness of these insects is not high - it is not recommended to use spraying against these pests in the conditions of amateur cultivation on the plot. All the more so as a large proportion of foraging caterpillars are parasitized by numerous useful wasps.
