Leafhoppers and Leaf Miners - any suggestions?

[ArcaneXor]

My brand new hops have been showing signs of infestation by leafhoppers (large black splotches resembling wilting lettuce, curled leaves) and leaf miners (burrowing "trails" in the leaves), and have basically stopped growing. I sprayed them down with Garden Safe Fungicide 3 (which is also an insecticide; active ingredient Neem Oil) and hope this will save the plants, but I was wondering if anyone else has experience with these pests, and what you did to stop the infestation. Thanks!

 

[BBL_Brewer]

You could try seven dust too. Or seven liquid is you have a sprayer.

 

[theredben]

Can you post pics? Leafhoppers do not leave dark patches, they cause a yellow stipling (dots) on the leaves that looks similar to spider mites, but the dots are much larger (around the size of a pencil mark). Leafhoppers are basically impossible to treat because if your plants are not attractive for a few days the leafhoppers will just feed somewhere else until the neem oil wears off.

Leafminers, while they look terrible, do not actually cause very much injury to the plants in terms of reduced yield. It is also impossible to treat the plants once the larvae are inside the leaves unless you are using a systemic insecticide (not the kind of thing you can buy at the garden centre). At best neem oil will decrease the number of eggs laid in your hop leaves, but again these bugs do very little overall injury to the plants.

I would not reccomend doing anything, it is just not worth the hassle for these minor pests.