What's this on Beets

BloodyNora

I noticed leaves on beet had white spots so cut a few and found tiny white specks on back.A these insects? They don't seem to be moving.

josusa47

They might be the cast-off skins of tiny insects that moult as they grow.  But whatever they are, I don't think you've anything to worry about, as the leaves look healthy otherwise.  Strong healthy plants will shrug off insect damage on such a small scale.

BloodyNora

Thanks Joshua - I'll give a thorough wash before eating!

Rubytoo

I don't know, but wish you posted more often.  I smile every time I see your user name...wish I had thought of it.
I grow those red stemmed chard leaves, had a white fly infestation once  and they look a bit like that. But yours looks pretty healthy.

BloodyNora

  it's my go-to word when frustrated! I've just planted 70 odd plugs today so no doubt will be posting frequently.

As for the white fly did you do anything to remove? I guess in the end it's a bit of added protein

Rubytoo

Thanks for being so obliging .....Bloody Nora 70 plugs!
I grow mine mostly for our birds so not quite so fussy if they are a bit buggy . But my white fly were quite bad (last year) so even rinsing off didn't work that well. Sorry I threw them in the compost and started again.
(There is a limit to how grotty they can be even for our birdies )

Yours might not be white flies though? Apologies I can't remember quite how ours looked on the leaf before they got bad, but you know if you have them!
Hope someone can identify them for you. I agree they are some kind of casing as joshua says.

BobTheGardener

Judging by the type of damage and shape of the culprits in the photo, I would say those are thrips.

BloodyNora

Should I be cutting off these damaged leaves? I still can't see those thrips ding the damage!