Hi Brianna,

Thank you for the pictures of your beets; they're really helpful.

From picture #2 it looks like leafminer which is a common issue when growing beets. Adult leaf miner flies lay eggs usually on the underside of beet leaves. When the eggs hatch, the larva burrow into the beet leaves causing damage as seen in your picture. Once the larve mature in 7-12 days they drop to the soil to continue their growth. At this pupae stage they are brown to black in color and it'll be 10 to 20 days before they transform into adult flies. There can be several generations during one growing season if nothing is done to interrupt their cycle.

Some of the strategies to stop these pests include:

-Inspecting the leaves and removing/crushing any egg masses found

-Clip and remove any infested leaves

-Carefully cultivating the soil around the plants to uncover any pupae and destroy those that are found

Here are some links to Extension program pages further describing these pests and actions you may want to take to prevent further damages and lead to better growing seasons in future years.

https://extension.usu.edu/vegetableguide/root-crops/beet-leafminer

https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/fact-sheets/leafminer-beet-spinach

Hope this information helps,

Cyndy