The weekend rains subsided last night and today ushered in temperatures in the 70’s. Sure enough, my in-ground Citrus collection was pushing out new leaves by the end of the day, 1-5mm in length. Perfect stage for Leafminer attack.
After the bees went home, I sprayed them with Bayer Leverage (asa Bayer Temprid SC) and Bayer Movento (asa Kontos). Total dosage was 1ml.
Do you get leafminers this early in the year? They don’t hit me until August.
Yup same here.
The leafminer egg injection occurs months earlier than the noticeable damage. Injection here can occur year-round.
When you see tiny new leaf and/or stem sprouts on your citrus – it is time to spray for Leafminer and ACP.
If Citrus Leafminer is your only concern (you’re too far north for ACP) and you want to stay organic, then treating everytime you see new growth and through the following month with Spinosad will suffice.
If ACP is also a concern or you’d prefer a less tedious conventional approach, then obtain Bayer Leverage 360 or Bayer Temprid SC (same ingredients) and follow the directions for Leverage: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www.agrian.com/pdfs/Leverage_360_Insecticide_Label1b.pdf
I started out this year with Bayer Leverage in January. Today I noticed lots of new growth poking out so after harvesting fruit and checking that the bees had gone home I sprayed 2 fl.oz. of DuPont Exirel on our 7 Citrus trees – covering about 350 sq.ft. with 16 gallons of solution.
