Help, Citrus trees.

[Neolones]

Hello guys,

I am knew to growing fruit trees, my lime tree & my kumquat tree are developing some sort of thing in their leaves.

Does anybody know what it is? How can I treat it?

Attach some pictures.

Thank you so much.

[mrtexas]

That's citrus leaf miner. Unless trees are really small doesn't do much damage
and not worth treating. They didn't show up last year until Sept 1.
close by in Sugar Land

[Neolones]

OK good, I will try and find what organic ways I can get rid of them.

Thank you.

[Millet]

The insect attackes the new growth. Wish there was, but there is no organic method of  controlling Citrus leaf miner, short of screening the entire tree.  - Millet

[Tropheus76]

I think the product I have with Spinosad claims to be organic but I think at the stage you are in it would only protect newer leaves and not already infected ones. I just did a search on Amazon to find it.

[adriano2]

i tried with coffee, but it did not work.

[Don]

Just nip the newly affected leaves off, the older ones would have already hatched. Good little job of an arvo havin a beer and eventually you can slow them down a bit provided there aren't too many neighbours citrus close by then it becomes pointless.

[Millet]

Leaves that have been affected by citrus leaf miner (CLM) still provide a lot of energy to the tree through photosynthesis.  If they are cut off, the tree as a whole will be the loser. The only real "damage" that CLM does to the tree is causing it to look unsightly.- Millet

[Yorgos]

i tried with coffee, but it did not work.

With cream and sugar or black?

[mrtexas]

OK good, I will try and find what organic ways I can get rid of them.

Thank you.

Take two rocks and squash leaf.

[adriano2]

nescafe extra foam

i tried with coffee, but it did not work.

With cream and sugar or black?

[Jani]

Neem works wonders for me with leaf miners...

I'm by no means a citrus expert, but I used to have major problems with leaf miners, across many species (lemons, limes, mandarins, calamondins, unknown seedlings etc.), and have ZERO problems with them other other pests now.

Now when there's a growth flush popping up, I simply got into the habit of spraying (at night only) the emerging new growth with diluted neem. And do this say every 3 or so nights until the new growth gets fairly  mature over a couple weeks. Since adopting this practice (a couple years ago) I have Never have any issues with leaf miners or those little turd looking caterpillars, or scale/soot .....Not even once.

I realize some are not as fond of neem, so I'm only saying what has worked for me. Also I guess it's worth noting that most of my trees are small/medium and potted (so this spray regiment isn't that tedious for me), but I have a couple larger in ground meyers and do this for them too.

[Tropheus76]

Neem works ok for most of my stuff. Does not work for my leaf miners. They could care less. Spinosad works pretty good however

[mangomaniac2]

I have best luck controlling leaf miner with seven garden dust. You should treat or it spreads to other trees. They can really take over if left unchecked.  High ph soil use thick layer of pine bark mulch to correct.

[Yorgos]

Here in the upper Gulf Coast of Texas the first couple of flushes do not seem bothered by the CLM. However you start your spray regimen (I use neem/spinosad) in late July to control as best you can.