Problem with Leafminers on my basil :-(

Hello everyone

My basil is looking really nice but on some of the leaves I see what looks like a dried up saliva trail. I found that they are LEAFMINERS.. very few leaves have these tracks, in general they are quite beautiful but I am afraid they will spread if i dont control them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Leaf_mining.jpg

How do I get rid of them without making the plant toxic for consumption? (there is an organic insecticide called Pyola. Could this work??? Also I read that spraying a mixture of garlic and water which has sat overnight will also repel pests. Has anyone done this before?)

Thank you for your help!

Kay

 

Garlic and water certainly works for cabbadges in repelling caterpillars, this is the method my father uses and he shows his veg.

 

Kaybee, leaf miner does not leave dried up saliva trails.
They would be slugs and snails.

Leaf miner does exactly what it says on the tin,
I tunnels between the two lavers of the leaf, leaving a trail, its true, but its not shiney and its not on the surface.

 

Kay, I agree withn Pete, it`s slugs. Leafminer dwells between the leaf laminates.:thumb:

 

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. I tried the garlic and water suggestion. So far so good....I will keep an eye out for the slugs. That is what I thought of when I originally saw the leaves but got focused on leafminers when I saw that picture on Wikipedia. Would the garlic + water work with slugs as well?

Thanks again to all of you. Have a great weekend!

Kay

 

Dont think garlic water would work on slugs.
best bet if you dont want to use slug pellets is to have a look after dark with a torch, and destroy any you find on the plants.

 

If you turn the leaves over you can usually see the minute grub at the end of the trail/tunnel, then squash it.

 

Thank you, I will give it a try!