I tried the bugsite you suggested but could not find it as mainly I am looking at the damage. Been searching online all morning but the closest I can come is leaf miners which the damage appears different. I may have found the culprit on photo #2 but do not know what kind of fly it is or if it is what is eating my Forget-Me-Not's from the inside out. Any help is much appreciated :)
To me, that looks like leaf miners. It looks like the white part around the edges of the damage is the actual path of the bug, and the brown is just what happened after. That could happen. I cannot be positive about it. But that is what I would guess. Try sprinkling some epsom salt around the base of one or a few of your plants and see if that stops the damage. Epsom salt is both a fertilizer (it has some micronutrients in it) and it often works as a pesticide. That's always my first step, mostly because it is easy and I have epsom salt. :D But seriously, I hate using chemicals so, I like to try this first. Good luck!
My first guess is also leafminers, though my experience has always been with Swiss chard. From what I recall, leafminers are larvae of a type of fly which lay eggs in the soil, then the larvae make their way up to the leaf and live in between the cellular layers of leaves. The trail they leave behind is, well, poop. When I had an infestation in my chard I removed and threw away severely damaged leaves, or harvested the salvageable leaves and cut out the section that wasn't edible. I also received the advice to squish them in the leaves, but I just remove the leaves immediately whenever I see a sign of them to prevent the larvae from maturing and laying more eggs in my soil. I throw them away, not compost. Since these buggies are in between the layers of the leaves, I don't know if there's any topical method of control. Does anyone have experience with systemic garlic sprays? Not sure if that might help?
