[QUOTE=Hulamom;609484]Aloha Simon
I've used neem oil for other things like to drench soil gnats but I didn't have any success with leaf miners. With the Spinosad, I found I only needed to spray the leaves and just the top of the potting mix under the plant (I grow in containers) to stop the cycle. This is usually early on when the plants are young and before there are any tomatoes. A friend of mine uses the neem oil with a few drops of dish soap and a bit of Simple Green. She said it works for a lot of different pests but it didn't work on the leaf miners. I gave her some spray with Spinosad and she was amazed that it worked after battling leaf miners for so many years.[/QUOTE]

Hulamom,

This is very helpful information. I really appreciate it. I will get some of the Spinosad and see how that works.

Again, much appreciated :)

Cheers
Simon.

Spraying
 

Hulamom,

I have finally managed to land myself some of the Monterey Garden Insect Spray with Spinosad. I can't believe how excited I am at insect spray :D

Anyway, you mentioned in your previous post that you sprayed it on the leaves and a little on the top of the potting soil, is this correct?

I am asking as I don't want to put too much or too little onto the plants. What would you recommend?

Two other questions.
1- Does the spray kill the eggs, larvae and flies?
2- Once you have sprayed, how often do you respray, and when the tomatoes are ripening, how long do you leave it after spraying before harvesting the tomatoes?

Could you let me know your experience?

Many thanks,
Simon.

I am not an expert on leaf miners but I think that you will have a difficult time with any insecticide killing the larvae which are already inside of the leaves. You may have success with killing the adult flies as they land on the leaves before they are able to lay new eggs but I don't really know.

However, as I read this I am thinking isn't it really really HOT in Saudi Arabia? I would use caution with spraying anything on your tomato leaves for fear of causing them to burn up in the heat. You would know better what you can do of course but I would recommend testing a small area first and see how the plants react before you risk spraying all of your plants.

Brownrexx,

Hopefully, it will kill the flies, but I was wondering if, after ingesting the pesticide and laying eggs, if the eggs would die too. I guess we'll see.

In regards Saudi, yes, it does get hot......too hot in the summer, which is why we have a 60 day holiday, but it has a great growing season from October until April.

The temperature at the moment is 23 degrees Celsius and gets down to single digits overnight, so we are able, for this period, to have quite a nice harvest.

Fingers crossed :)

Thanks