Leaf miners on broccoli

[marlingardener]

Yesterday I discovered leaf miner damage on our broccoli seedlings. Nothing terrible yet, but I wanted to stop those little devils in their tracks. I read up on leaf miners, and found a recipe for 1/4 c. molasses mixed with 1 1/2 c. water. Sprayed on the leaves this would suffocate the egg layers and the eggs for leaf miners.
Has anyone tried this? And what do you do to discourage leaf miners?

 

[Chuck]

Once the miners are inside the leaf there is nothing short of removing the leaf that you can do on vegetable plants. Once you see the very first sign of leaf miner damage start a spray regime with Neem Oil. All molasses does is feed the micro-organisms on the leaf, thus increasing their numbers and while doing this reducing the number of eggs which will end up hatching and enabling the larvae to invade the leaf. I mix neem with molasses @ 2 oz of each per gallon of water at the first sign. Most times leaf miners don't do enough damage to really worry about but once in awhile just about every leaf will have 3 or 4 miners in it. The egg laying last about 2-3 weeks twice a year. Once in mid to late spring and the other the beginning of fall in our area.