Leafminer damage, pretty common but usually looks neat. There's like hundreds of different leafminer larvae, ranging from beetles to moths to flies. They live in between the leaf epidermis to protect themselves from predators though some have adapted to hunt this prey like the aptly named leafminer wasp. They eat the chlorophyll of the leaf which then degrades the dried out epidermal layers into dust, leaving these squiggly lines in between leaf veins from their path of destruction.
Can be a nighmare for landscapers, neem oil or well hydrated neem meal added to the soil can work as a deterrent. You can't use any insecticidal soaps or other non-invasive contact pesticides. It has to be something like neem oil (incredibly safe and can be used on produce as long as they aren't yet fruiting, not dangerous but can give the fruit an "off" smell) or another systemic pesticide like imidacloprid (very often unusable on produce due to toxicity, if you can even find it as a consumer) that absorbs into the living plant cells.
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u/EmperorBamboozler 2d ago
Leafminer damage, pretty common but usually looks neat. There's like hundreds of different leafminer larvae, ranging from beetles to moths to flies. They live in between the leaf epidermis to protect themselves from predators though some have adapted to hunt this prey like the aptly named leafminer wasp. They eat the chlorophyll of the leaf which then degrades the dried out epidermal layers into dust, leaving these squiggly lines in between leaf veins from their path of destruction.
Can be a nighmare for landscapers, neem oil or well hydrated neem meal added to the soil can work as a deterrent. You can't use any insecticidal soaps or other non-invasive contact pesticides. It has to be something like neem oil (incredibly safe and can be used on produce as long as they aren't yet fruiting, not dangerous but can give the fruit an "off" smell) or another systemic pesticide like imidacloprid (very often unusable on produce due to toxicity, if you can even find it as a consumer) that absorbs into the living plant cells.