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In today's video we will see how to control leaf miners on your citrus plants and almost
any other plant
Leaf miners mostly attack the citrus plants
As you might already know and I know a lot of you might be wondering what to do
to get rid of these leaf miners
today we will discuss a solution
So to control leaf miners, you need two things
You need Spinosad which is available as a dead bug concentrate
It's completely organic and natural
And you also need mineral oil and this Bonide all season spray oil is easily available
and its a mineral oil
now if you look at the instructions that say is that in
central and southern california
you use about 1.5 - 4 tablespoons of this oil per gallon
So that's just a rough idea depending on where you live
you can use approximately the same amount
And let's look at what Spinosad spray says
It says to spray 4 tablespoons in a gallon of water
So that's what we will be using
so the mineral oil and Spinosad together have a powerful synergistic effect which you will
soon find out
so we're going to be measuring out the mineral oil first
4 tablespoons added in this gallon sprayer
So mineral oil is completely organic natural very safe to use
You do not have to really worry about anything when using this mineral oil
So let's add 4 tablespoons of this mineral oil in
our gallon sprayer
Now what the mineral oil does is that it smothers all the insects that are sitting on the plant
including bugs or eggs or larvae of the insect
But it's a temporary solution
And that's why we also need to use Spinosad
which is more of an attacking ingredient
The Spinosad bacteria will stay on the plan for at least a few days
Assuming it doesn't rain heavily in your area
And what it will do is it will sit the plant and make sure that anything that's there on
the plant is killed
Not remember that both Spinosad and mineral oil should be applied late in the evening
when the Sun has died down and the honey bees are less active
because Spinosad also kills honey bees and you do not wanna kill a lot of honeybees
As far as the treatment frequency is concerned
you should play once a month during the growing season
And to make things easier just chalk out a calendar
And then keep ticking the month that you have completed spraying
So this is the first citrus plant we will be treating today
This is the semi-dwarf Washington navel orange plant
And if you take a closer look at this plant look how much damage the leaf miners have
done
The just bored through all the new growth in the citrus plant and leave the plant almost
lifeless
So not only does the leaf miner
give a bad look to your plant aesthetically
It will also hamper fruit production in your citrus plants
And it will attack any new growth on your citrus plant
so its important to get rid of them
So let's start spraying this citrus plant
All you need to do is make sure you spray over and under the leaves
And make sure you're completely drench the plant
And if you notice its late evening here
So it's very important that you spray late evening
The reason for staying late evening is that if you spend any time during the morning
time, the sun is gonna come out
and the oil and the water droplets on the plant act like magnifying glass
and they will kill your plan they will burn your plant and you really don't
want that to happen
so you must pray this in the late evening
Now I know my sprayer is a little leaky
You can see some fluid dripping down from the bottom of the hand sprayer
and I know I need to get that fixed but this is what I have as of now
and luckily neither Spinosad nor mineral oil are toxic to human beings or pets
So a little bit of the liquid touching your skin is OK
But if you are concerned about not touching the liquid I recommend you wear gloves
So we are now gonna be treating our semi-dwarf Dancy Mandarin tangerine
And this plant produces really nice sweet and very delicious tangerines
And the leaf miners have wreaked havoc on this plant as well
So we're going to spraying this plant in a similar way
make sure your coat all the leaves
over and under
And finally they will be treating our Mexican lime plant
This Mexican lime plan produces very nice seedless limes and this plant also has done
the same leaf miner problem as the other citrus plants
so I hope you like this video and I know there a lot of you who have been terrorized
by this leaf miner are attacking your citrus plants
And as you can see the solution is very simple you just need to make sure you
Treat your plants monthly using this technique that we discussed
And I'll see you again soon in another episode of California Gardening
Until then...Happy Gardening!