How to prevent Superfamily Gracillarioidea from eating leaves

How do you prevent Superfamily Gracillarioidea from eating leaves?

It’s super annoying to have trails all over the leaves.
Will Neem oil kill them?

Is there a specific reason/reasons as to why you don’t want them around? For vanity sakes, crop destruction etc? Keep in mind there are plenty of taxa other than Gracillarioidea that also leaf mine.

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Leaf miner damage is generally considered to be just cosmetic. Personally I’ve been wanting the local DNR to look into getting some gall formers and leaf mining insects described so I know what to label my photos, but they see it as so low risk to actually kill a tree that they won’t put the funding into it.
You could slowly cut back the population by pulling the leaves while they’re still in their larval stage, but that would hurt the trees more than the moths do.

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Or get to know and love the Gracillarioidea. They are minute wondrous beings! I mean, just check these out…

Macarostola sp.
CC-BY-NC @adri_losso

Phyllocnistis populiella
CC-BY-NC @er1kksen

Caloptilia azaleella
CC-BY-NC-SA @pbedell

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Those little Azalea Leafminer’s are cute IMO, they have a unique way of standing, I call them “stand-y moths”. Check out this picture I took of an Azalea Leafminer next to a 1cm cube.

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Leafminers are a natural and wonderful part of the ecosystem, part of the great web of biodiversity in which we all exist. Let’s all try to foster more life when we can, rather than wishing its destruction. Check out this project to learn more about leafminers: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/leafminers-of-north-america — they make some extraordinary art on the canvas of leaves, and they have fascinating life histories and interactions with other organisms.

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You can try casting a fine mesh covering over your plants, like this.

Reposting this comment because I replied to the wrong user.

Is there a particular species of plant you’re trying to protect?

You should put that in the "Nature Nicknames thread.

It mostly affects my lemon tree.

I just did that, good idea.

How tall is your Lemon tree? Is it too big and/or tall to be cast with a mesh?

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