Today I had to kill my spinach before the evil bugs called Leaf Miners could do it for me. If the color of your Swiss Chard or Spinach is turning pale yellow and crunchy and at a closer look has pathways throughout the leaves, BEWARE, because you probably have Leaf Miners too!
Leaf Miners are tiny bugs that will quickly eat your greens if they are not taken care of immediately! In order to destroy them, I suggest pulling up already damaged crops and starting over so that the bugs do not spread throughout your entire bed.
Check out this guide from the Rutgers ag station (PDF) for more details on the vicious bug. I share your pain if you have to start from scratch, just like me, but wish you the best of luck with future crops!
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Ugh! Leaf Miners are really awful! I sometimes get them on my roses, too, and they sure make a mess. If you see just a few tunnels on some of the spinach or the swiss chard, do you have to pull it all up, or can you just take off the affected leaves and leave the rest of the plant in the ground? I wish I had planted spinach seeds last fall like the article suggested, then I would have spinach already. Maybe I will try it this fall.
You don't always have to pull up all the leaves, but the bugs do spread fairly quickly. I would suggest just pulling off the infected leaves first, but if you notice that the bugs have spread to other plants, I would pull them up immediately, otherwise they will just continue to eat whatever you have planted, which can be very frustrating!
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