beetroot problem - mangold fly?

[^chris]

Hi.
I recently noticed that some of leaves on my beetroot plants have become discoloured and kind of rotten/blistered. From doing a bit of reading online, it sounds like it may be a mangold fly issue.
The advice I've read says to remove the affected leaves which I've done as it sounds like a fairly reasonable thing to do with any kind of infested/diseased leaves. I also read you should hoe the soil around the beetroots to distrub the larvae and encourage the birds to eat them. I also did this as I figure hoeing the beetroot patch is a good idea anyway.

So, my questions are..
-Is this mangold fly?
-There's a lot of cats in my area so the birds tend to stay away. Assuming its mangold fly, is there anything else I can do that doesn't rely on birds?
-My garden is quite small and I've slotted the beetroots in next to the compost bin, which attracts a huge amount of flies. Is it possible that the compost bin is attracting these flies?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

[airconednightmare]

it certainly sounds like leaf minners, i wouldn't worry to much about them to be honest. they only have one life cycle a year so if you have removed them, that should be the end of the problem for this year.

[^chris]

That's good to know - fingers crossed then
thanks