Pegomya hyoscyami The beet or spinach leafminer, pegomya hyoscyami, is a gray fly about 1/4 inch long. It emerges in April-May and lays eggs on the undersides of leaves of beet, spinach, chard, and other greens.1 Eggs develop into maggots that burrow into the leaf hollowing out large patches of the leaf between leaf surfaces, often killing large parts of the leaf.
Maggots may move from leaf to leaf before entering the soil to pupate into flies. Maggots may also pupate in the leaf and create several generations each year.
Control is cultural, creating a barrier by using floating row covers or removing infestations as soon as they appear and destroying the damaged leaves off site. Yellow sticky traps may be used to trap adults. Pesticides are ineffective as the vulnerable stage, the maggots are protected inside the leaf.
http://www.insectimages.org/images/768x512/5209044.jpg
http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/inse008/inse008.htm
http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/HortFactSheets/factsheets/Spinach%20Leafminer.pdf
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/rowcrops/e1288.pdf
Tmgibs34 (talk) 06:20, 17 June 2009 (UTC)Tom Gibson-Camas PermacultureTmgibs34 (talk) 06:20, 17 June 2009 (UTC)