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Leaf miners of long legged flies

General    India

These long legged flies live only on the plants with broader leaves like beans, bottle gourd, Lab Lab, matured beet. Those leaf tissues are eaten by their larvae in a matter of hours, leaving a very visible trail on their leaves. I have a pheromone trap installed, I have applied insecticidal soap with neem oil and ginger garlic chilli infusion fermented in cow urine. They only keep them away for some time but they are found the very next day. The plants affected by them soon wilt and die. Please help me to keep them away. Thanks in advance.


Posted by: Shameem Javed (1 point) Shameem Javed
Posted: January 16, 2017




Answers

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If your identification of the long legged fly is correct (and I think it might be, based on the fuzzy picture), you have two things going on. Long legged fly larvae are ground-dwelling, so they are not the leafminers you are seeing on your plants. In fact, most flies from the family Dolichopodidae are considered beneficial garden insects because the larvae consume pest insects. So no need to worry about them.

Reference: http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/ent-69

Your leafminers are a different species, possibly in the genus Liriomyza, and you may be able to use protective cloth over your plants to protect them from this pest after you remove damaged leaves.

Reference: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/VEGES...



Posted by: Sheena Sidhu (19 points) Sheena Sidhu
Posted: February 8, 2017




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