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I've been trying since early March to grow peppers from plants (not from seed) in several different spots in our garden and flower beds. Much to my dismay they are all being eaten by SOMEthing. I can never CATCH anything on my plants, but one day they look good, healthy enough, and the next day... practically stripped!! I even had peppers starting... next day... not only are the leaves gone, but the whole dog gone pepper too!
SHOOT! What's UP?!!!
If I need to provide pics I will, but it's so disheartening as it is...
Forgot to mention... I've tried cayenne, jalapeno, pablano, banana, anaheim, and believe it or not... the only peppers they haven't gotten to are my bellpeppers.
I don't know the answer but have the same problem. Someone told me it is slugs and set out a saucer of beer and the slugs will drown in it. Didn't happen and my pepper plants are being defoliated and the peppers themselves have huge bites.. What's up?
I think it's a tomatoe hornworm, with the leaves being stripped like that. I've removed and squished several off of my plants. I wondered about what appeared to be chew marks on my tomatoes and peppers. Hadn't heard of that before, but I remove them pretty quick.
It's about the size of a pencil or a little bigger, 1 1/2" - 2" long, kind of a lime green color, that crawls up the stem. A couple I picked off had what I guess was white eggs on their backs. Just check your plants over, and you will probably find it. They blend in really well with the stem color!
The tomato hormworm likes pepper plants, tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. Occasionally, they may also feed on green fruit.
I had my first experience with them a few weeks back and it actually scared the ba-hoo-hoo out of me. I was looking at a tomato plant up close, looking for aphids and I turned my head and about 3 or 4 inches from my nose was a hornworm. I think S.C. heard my startled cry! And Robin...this was no pencil thin moustache...that sucker (pardon the pun) was as big around as my middle finger! And right at 4 inches long. And yes...I took a picture. This thing ranks right up there with the "Alien in my Soil" creature!
The little white cocoons on it's back are indeed eggs. But not eggs of the hornworm. They are from a beneficial wasp. The wasp injects the worm with the 'eggs' and they feed on the inside of the hornworm until they are ready to pupate. The wasps will kill the hornworm when they emerge from the cocoons and will seek out other hornworms to parasitize.
So if you find a hornworm with the cocoons, leave them so they can hatch and parasitize other hornworms. Those that don't have the cocoons, just pick them off and sqwuish 'em!
Since they do camaflouge very well, look for little black droppings. If you see those, look above the droppings to find a hornworm.
Here's a link to see what they look like. Click here: My California Garden in Zone 23: Tomato Hornworm
(By the way...these don't make good fishing worms. I already tried that. Once you prick them with the hook, they deflate and lime green 'stuff' squirts everywhere. lol)
Hope this helps!
Oh yeah...if you don't want to pick them off by hand, get you some BT and dust on them. It takes a couple of days to work but once the powder gets on them, they immediately stop eating!
Pinger42 wrote;" I think S.C. heard my startled cry!"
So THAT"S what that was! I don't blame you, though. It always amazes me, I can sit there and examine the entire plant, and see nothing. Then it just simply appears. Once I've found it, I wonder how I could have missed it, but until then...and don't turn away, it'll be gone again...
BTW, I don't kill them, I move them to some american nightshade plants that I'd otherwise be pulling up, and everyone's happy.
It would have been a bit different had I known that the "Incredible Hulk" even existed. I was concentrating so hard on turning and looking under every little leaf for aphids, I was literally 'in the plant'. And just one little turn of my head and he right there, in my face. I really don't remember screaming but I do know that I jerk backed and rocked a bit on my stool...then sat there a minute while my heart slowed down...lol
And the first thing I thought was, "Wait until they see THIS...they're not gonna believe me!" So I ran in to get my camera and sure enough, when I got back, I couldn't find him. I finally did...he was in the same spot, I just couldn't see him.
Also, about three days later, I saw the biggest 'beetle' I've ever seen... anyone know what that was? I say 'was' because he didn't live more than 5 seconds after I saw him...lol He was easily the size of a quarter. Anyone know?
Here's a pic of my first Hornworm. By the way Cajun2...have you found any Hornworms yet?
Ping
Slugs were doing this to my peppers. I put a saucer of beer at the base of the plant and caught very many of them. I also read that by putting nutshells or something else rugged at the base of the plants also deters slugs
