I have a leaf miner on my basil and tomato plants. Should I remove the affected leaves?

Question

I have what I have been told is a leaf miner on my basil and tomato plants. Given that you actually eat/use the basil leaves, I'm pretty sure I should get rid of those. Will removing the affected leaves on the tomato plant help it or hurt it? I have read that they are difficult to get rid of because the miner is actually embedded in the plant, not on the surface. So if I can't eliminate it entirely, should I just let the affected leaves go or will it be better off to trim off the "bad" leaves?

Answer 1

There is a product for this, called tomato or vegetable dust. Follow directions, not necessary to remove the leaves, just don't eat the bad basil ones.  

Answer 2

There is no dust or insecticide that can kill leaf miners..they don't actually kill the plant but can hinder it from growing as well..I pick mine off of my basil and put the leaves on something hot like in my wheel barrow or on hot concrete so they will fry...The only cure of leaf miners is prevention and killing off the adults before they bore into your plants and deposit thier eggs...The tomatoe plants yes pull leaves off, but not all of them at one time..if they are of anysize go out and pull about 6 or 7 of the worse ones daily, so they can heal over..eventually you will ctach up with them..and by all means..do not eat the basil leaves that contain them..You are getting leaves that are drained of thier flavor, plus eating the miners...I will give you some links on these discussed items..and also pictures of my garden.. I have hands on experience..I grw veggies 12 months out of the year...

Here it tells you insecticide is of no use..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf_miner

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/im...

Answer 3

You can trim them if they are badly disfigured and you want to but the leaf miner on these plants shouldn't cause too much damage and the effort may not be worth it. They are completely harmless to eat and you will not even notice them.