I have seen some citrus trees labeled "treated with imidicloprid" at the big box stores. I assume this is for leaf miners? I have been using admire SC for leaf miners but am limited to 6 applications per year. Is imidicloprid a better leaf minercide? I am currently growing about 100 trees a year for sale.

I believe Admire is just a trade name for imidicloprid. Only difference would be concentration and formulation materials.

How does Imidacloprid affect the fruit? How long does one have to wait after application before it's safe to eat them?

I find the information on Imidacloprid to be confusing and contradicting. Admire is recommended as a soil drench on fruited citrus but Bayer Systemic has the same ingredient and state to definitely not eat the fruit. I tried the Bayer systemic (Imidacloprid) on some young trees last year and it did absolutely nothing to stop the leaf miners.
All those leaves that I was trying so hard to protect last year were shed this winter so I am slowly leaning towards the thinking if Millet, LSU agcenter and others on this forum to just let the leaf miner run its course. It’s just so hard to see them bore into a leaf and do nothing.
Karl

The Bayer stuff worked on my seedlings last fall, but I would not use it for at least a year before plants are ready for fruiting---that is just my opinion based on the fact that it is somewhat persistient and the fact that it is systemic.