Miner flies are primarily garden pests, sometimes by chance, falling on indoor flowers. In central Russia, there are several types of mining flies: heterogeneous and polyphagous miners, strawberry, chrysanthemum and nightshade miners, etc. - flies of the Agromizid family. Among the agromysid flies there are also gall flies, but the miners include flies of the genus Phytomyza Phytomyza and Liriomyza Liriomyza.
Agromizids have a peculiarity - they are specific to certain plant crops, i.e. each type of fly prefers certain plants. Perhaps this is what saves our indoor flowers. Otherwise, the threat would be too serious - some species of mining flies are quarantine species in many countries (Liriomyza sativae is a tomato leaf mine, not found in Russia). Miner flies can get to indoor flowers with purchased flowers, especially potted flowers (chrysanthemums, gerberas), with bulbs and industrial soil, with seeds, and become infected if the flowers are displayed in summer on an open balcony or in the garden.
Outwardly, the miner flies are small, about 2-3 mm long, with transparent gray wings. They lay whitish or yellowish translucent eggs on the back of the leaves. The duration of development of one generation (from egg to adult fly) is approximately 20-35 days. Adult insects harm the plant by puncturing tissues and sucking out cell sap. Miner larvae are very small 1-3 mm, hatch from eggs on days 5-8 and invade leaf tissues. They eat out the plant from the inside, gnawing through entire networks of passages - mines. Outwardly, this can be seen in light necrotic stripes and spots of irregular shape. Gradually, the leaf dries, turns yellow, deforms and dies. The speed of spreading and eating is very high, so plants lose their ornamental appearance very quickly.
Mining fly - how to fight
It is necessary to remove the affected leaves, on which traces of the mine are visible. It is worth hanging fly traps. In garden areas, it is advisable to impose adhesive belts on tree trunks - larvae and adult flies overwinter in cracks in the bark, and secluded places on trees and shrubs (including leaf litter). Gardeners use hanging traps painted yellow - you can use pieces of linoleum, plywood and other material. The plate is lubricated with a sticky adhesive solution and hung in greenhouses at the level of leaf growth.
The use of chemicals makes sense at home if the pests reappear on flowers. In this case, you can spray plants from a mining fly with drugs: actellic, carbofos, actara, tanrek, apache or confidor. Also, organophosphorus insecticides (Zolon, BI-58 new) are used to protect against agromisides, processing is carried out in the fall, before the pest hides for the winter (goes into diapause) - by spraying tree trunks. Neonicotinoid class drugs - Confidor Maxi, Aktara, Mospilan - watering the soil around small plants or flowers, watering around trees and shrubs is unjustified - too much consumption of expensive drugs.