How do I control my leaf miners organically?

My tomatoes continually get ravaged by leaf miners. I've tried using Safer and Neem and neither have worked sufficiently - even when I remove the affected leaves and kill the pests when I see them. My tomatoes can't grow fast enough to keep ahead of the damage. I've heard of parasitic wasps being helpful, but I don't know where to get them and don't know if they are aggressive and sting (I have a toddler who likes to play in the yard). Does anyone have some ideas that might help? I'd really like to keep away from using chemical pest control if at all possible. Thank you!

 

There are lots of different leaf miners as they are the larval stage of insects.
You will have to find out which ones are attacking your plants and then try to find either a pesticide or deterrent or both that gives your plants the upper hand.
You could use a systemic but that generally does a lot of co lateral damage as well.

Sorry not to be more helpful.

Bob

 

the only way of organically controlling leaf miner would likely be pulling the affected leaves off and disposing of them.

 

Or by squashing them in the leaf.

Or get a union agitator to get the miners to go on strike? ;-)

Definitely not aggressive and they don't sting, they're not at all like "ordinary" wasps. They're actually so small, you'll hardly notice they're there. They are only called wasps because they are biologically related.

 

Pulling and destroying infected leaves as soon as you spot them is gonna be the fastest treatment before mature larvae drop to the soil and pupate starting yet another cycle.
Try adding flowering plants near to where the tomatoes are growing to attract parasitic wasps to the garden.
Here they LOVE Sweet Alyssum, Statice, Dill, and most plants of the Asteraceae family.
Parasitic wasps also lay their eggs on the Tomato/Tobacco Hornworms, so if you ever see one of these on your plants with what looks like a row of eggs on it's back leave it be.

 

A couple suggestions gleaned from this page: woodashes sprinkled on the leafs, as a preventative; Pyrethrum sprayed twice, a week apart, to control an infestation. You might also add 1/4 tsp. liquid dishsoap per gallon of spray as a surfactant.