Pests
Symptoms Tiny soft green insects gather on new growth and the undersides of leaves, making them curl and yellow, often with a sticky film and black mold. They can also spread plant viruses to peppers.Colonies of small soft-bodied insects, most often green peach aphid, cluster on growing tips and the undersides of leaves, curling and yellowing the foliage, with sticky honeydew and sooty mold following. Beyond direct feeding, aphids transmit the mosaic viruses that mottle and distort pepper leaves, which is their most serious effect on the crop. Cause Small sap-sucking insects that multiply quickly in warm weather, especially on soft, over-fertilized growth. They also carry viruses from plant to plant.Green peach aphid and related species suck sap and reproduce rapidly in warm weather, building up fast on the soft growth that excess nitrogen produces. As virus carriers they matter out of proportion to the feeding damage they do, with colonies often establishing by early summer. Organic treatment Blast them off with a strong spray of water and treat the undersides of the leaves with insecticidal soap, repeating every few days. Ladybugs and other helpful insects eat aphids, so welcome them.Knock colonies off with a strong jet of water and spray insecticidal soap or horticultural oil with thorough coverage of the leaf undersides, repeating every few days. Conserve ladybugs, lacewings, and parasitic wasps, which usually bring aphids under control. Prevention Do not over-fertilize with nitrogen, check the undersides of leaves regularly, and let helpful insects do their work. A silver reflective mulch under young plants helps keep aphids off.Avoid excess nitrogen, which drives the soft growth aphids favor, scout leaf undersides and growing tips, and support natural enemies rather than spraying broadly. Reflective mulch deters aphids from young plants and slows virus spread.
Symptoms The leaves are peppered with lots of tiny round holes, as if hit by birdshot. It hits young plants hardest. Touch the plant and you will see tiny dark beetles jump away.Tiny shot-hole punctures riddle the leaves, a scatter of small round holes that is the classic flea-beetle signature. Damage is worst on seedlings and young transplants, whose small leaf area a heavy infestation can shred; established peppers tolerate considerable feeding. Brush a plant and the small dark beetles spring away like fleas. Cause Small dark beetles that jump like fleas and chew tiny holes in the leaves. They are most active in spring and target young plants early in the season.Several flea beetle species (potato, tobacco, and palestriped) feed on pepper foliage, overwintering as adults in debris and emerging to attack the earliest, most vulnerable plants in spring. Young transplants are far more at risk than large, established plants. Organic treatment Cover young plants with a light row cover until they are big and strong, then take it off when they flower. Setting out larger transplants helps them outgrow the damage. For heavy attacks, an organic spray such as spinosad helps.Protect transplants with floating row cover until they are large and vigorous, removing it at flowering so pollinators can reach the blooms. Set out stout, well-hardened transplants so plants can outgrow the damage, and treat heavy early infestations with spinosad or kaolin clay. Prevention Cover plants early with row cover, set out larger transplants into warm soil so they grow quickly, and clear away weeds and old plant debris where the beetles hide over winter.Use row cover from transplanting, delay setting plants out until soil and air are warm so they grow away fast, and clean up crop debris and weeds that harbor overwintering adults.
Symptoms Little holes near the top of the pepper, sometimes with sawdust-like droppings, and a caterpillar tunneling inside that makes the fruit rot. It is common where field corn is grown.Small entry holes near the stem-end cap of the fruit, often with crumbly frass, and a caterpillar tunneling inside that leads to premature ripening and rot. The borer also tunnels stems, which can wilt or break, while the corn earworm chews holes in the fruit. Both are common pepper pests in the corn-growing Midwest, South, and East, with damage building into late summer. Cause Caterpillars, the young of moths, that bore into peppers near the cap and into the stems, causing rot and breakage. They have more than one generation each summer.The larvae of the European corn borer moth and the corn earworm moth, which lay eggs on peppers and corn in summer; the caterpillars bore into fruit through the cap and, for the borer, into stems. Two or more generations a season are common, with the heaviest pressure by late summer. Organic treatment Catch it early: an organic Bt or spinosad spray works on the young caterpillars before they tunnel in, but does nothing once they are inside a pepper. Pick off and destroy any bored fruit.Scout for eggs and early larvae and apply Bacillus thuringiensis or spinosad to young caterpillars before they bore into the fruit, since once inside they are protected. Remove and destroy infested fruit, and clean up crop and nearby corn debris at season's end. Prevention Clean up old pepper and corn stalks at the end of the season, watch for the caterpillars from midsummer, and treat while they are small. Cleaning up where they overwinter is the biggest help.Destroy crop debris and nearby cornstalks where the borer overwinters, scout from midsummer when moths are flying, and time treatment to newly hatched larvae. Choosing an earlier variety can dodge the worst of the flight in some areas.
Symptoms Some peppers turn red too early and rot from the inside, and cutting one open reveals a small white maggot tunneling through the flesh. It is mainly a problem in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.Fruit that colors up early and unevenly, sometimes with a soft, rotting spot and a pinhole scar on the skin, and a white, legless maggot tunneling in the flesh inside. Cut the pepper open and the winding feeding channels and the maggot give it away. It is a regional pest, spread from New Jersey through much of the eastern half of the country, and most troublesome in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Cause A fly that lays its eggs in young peppers in summer; the maggot that hatches feeds inside the fruit, causing early ripening and rot. It is worst where the pest is established locally.The larva of the pepper maggot fly, which lays eggs in developing fruit through mid to late summer, leaving a tiny egg-puncture scar. There is one generation a year and it overwinters as a pupa in the soil; the maggot feeds inside and infested fruit ripens prematurely and often rots. Organic treatment You cannot save an infested pepper, so pick off and destroy any that ripen early or show a pinhole scar to stop the next generation. Removing wild host weeds like horsenettle nearby helps.There is no rescue for an infested fruit, so control targets the egg-laying flies: remove and destroy affected peppers promptly to break the cycle, and where pressure is high time labeled sprays to the egg-laying period. A yellow sticky trap helps confirm when the flies are active. Prevention Clear away wild nightshade weeds nearby, move peppers to a new spot each year, and destroy any infested fruit. In areas where it is a known problem, a floating row cover put on before fruit forms keeps the flies out.Remove nearby wild solanaceous weeds such as horsenettle that host the fly, rotate peppers away from last year's bed, clean up and destroy infested fruit, and in problem areas protect fruit with a labeled spray timed to the flight or with row cover before fruit set.
Symptoms Flower buds and little peppers drop off the plant, and peppers that hold on are black and rotten inside. A tiny dark, long-nosed beetle is the cause. It is mainly a problem in the warm South.Buds and small fruit drop from the plant, and cut-open fruit is black and frass-filled inside, its core rotted where a grub has fed. The dark, long-snouted adult weevil, about an eighth of an inch, feeds on buds and leaves. It is a serious pest of the warm South, especially Texas, Florida, and Georgia, and once established is very hard to shake. Cause A small weevil whose grubs develop inside pepper buds and fruit, causing them to drop and rot. It builds up quickly in warm weather and survives on leftover pepper plants and weeds.Anthonomus eugenii, a small weevil whose larvae develop inside pepper buds and fruit. Adults feed on foliage and lay eggs in buds and young fruit, causing them to drop; five to eight overlapping generations build fast in warm climates, and the pest overwinters on volunteer peppers and nightshade weeds where winters are mild. Organic treatment You cannot save infested peppers, so gather and destroy every dropped bud and fruit to stop the next generation, and pull up old pepper plants and nearby nightshade weeds at season's end. Keeping the area clean is the main defense.There is no home-garden cure for infested fruit, so sanitation is central: pick up and destroy all dropped buds and fruit promptly to break the breeding cycle, remove volunteer peppers and nightshade weeds, and end the season by pulling and destroying spent plants. Where established, labeled sprays are timed to the adults. Prevention Buy healthy transplants, keep the garden free of leftover pepper plants and nightshade weeds, clean up dropped buds and fruit, and do not plant peppers in the same spot as last year.Start with clean transplants (the weevil moves on infested plants), remove volunteer peppers and solanaceous weeds that harbor it, destroy dropped fruit through the season, and rotate away from last year's pepper ground.
Symptoms Whole leaves vanish, leaving just the veins, with dark droppings on the leaves below. The cause is a large green caterpillar that hides against the stems, easier to spot by its droppings than by sight.Large sections of leaf, and sometimes whole shoots, are stripped down to the veins, with dark pellet droppings on the leaves below. The culprits are big green hornworms, up to three or four inches long, that blend into the stems and are easiest to find by their frass, and they will scar the fruit as well. Cause Big green caterpillars, the young of large moths, that feed on pepper leaves and fruit mostly in mid to late summer. Even a few can strip a lot of foliage.Tobacco and tomato hornworms, the larvae of large sphinx moths, which feed on solanaceous foliage including pepper from midsummer on. A few caterpillars can do conspicuous damage given their size, and they will chew into fruit as well as leaves. Organic treatment Pick the caterpillars off by hand and drop them in soapy water. If you find one covered in small white capsules, leave it, those are parasitic wasps that will do the work for you. An organic Bt spray works on the smaller caterpillars.Hand-pick the caterpillars, which is effective in a home garden, and apply Bacillus thuringiensis to younger larvae where numbers are high. Leave any hornworm studded with white parasitic-wasp cocoons in place, since the wasps will kill it and breed more. Prevention Turn the soil at the end of the season to destroy the pupae, watch for droppings and missing leaves from midsummer, and welcome the helpful wasps that attack hornworms.Till the soil in fall to destroy overwintering pupae, scout for frass and stripped leaves from midsummer, and encourage the parasitic wasps and other natural enemies that keep hornworms in check.
Diseases
Symptoms Small dark, water-soaked spots on the leaves that spread and turn brown or black, often ringed in yellow, with rough scabby spots on the peppers too. Bad cases drop leaves and expose the fruit to sunburn. It thrives in warm, wet weather.Small, water-soaked spots on the leaves that turn brown to black with a slightly raised, scabby center and a yellow halo; badly spotted leaves yellow and drop, and raised, cracked, scabby lesions form on the fruit. Defoliation exposes the remaining fruit to sunscald. It is one of the most common and damaging pepper diseases, worst in warm, wet, splashy weather. Cause A bacterial disease carried on seed and in old plant debris that spreads in splashing water during warm, wet weather. It often comes in on infected seed or transplants.Xanthomonas bacteria that are both seedborne and carried on crop debris, spreading in splashing water and on hands and tools. Warm, humid, rainy conditions favor it, and infected seed or transplants often start an outbreak, so clean seed and rotation are central to control. Organic treatment There is no cure, so pull off badly spotted leaves and avoid handling the plants when they are wet. A copper spray can slow it down but will not cure it, so prevention matters most.There is no cure once plants are infected; remove the worst-affected leaves and avoid working among wet plants. Copper-based sprays can slow spread but do not eradicate it, so the emphasis is on preventing it in the first place. Prevention Use clean seed and healthy transplants, look for resistant varieties, do not plant peppers in the same spot for a few years, mulch the soil, water at the base instead of over the leaves, and clean up old plants in fall.Start with certified disease-free or hot-water-treated seed and clean transplants, choose resistant varieties where available, rotate peppers out of the bed for two to three years, mulch to limit soil splash, water at the base rather than overhead, and remove crop debris at season's end.
Symptoms The plant wilts and collapses suddenly, often with a dark rotten patch on the stem near the soil, and the roots and even the fruit can rot. It strikes in warm, wet, soggy ground and moves fast. It is one of the worst pepper diseases.Dark, water-soaked lesions girdle the stem at or near the soil line and the plant wilts and collapses suddenly, sometimes with a white cottony growth; roots rot, and fruit can develop a firm, white-mold rot. It flares in warm, wet, poorly drained ground and after heavy rain or flooding, and is among the most serious pepper diseases in much of the country. Cause A mold-like disease that lives in wet soil and spreads in splashing and running water, attacking peppers in warm, soggy conditions. It moves fast once it starts and lives in the soil for years.Phytophthora capsici, a water mold that thrives in saturated soil and spreads in splashing and running water. It survives in soil and debris for years and moves fast in warm, wet weather, especially on heavy or poorly drained ground and in low spots that stay wet. Organic treatment Pull and destroy affected plants and fruit, and fix the drainage. There is no good home cure once it takes hold, so prevention is what matters.Remove and destroy affected plants and fruit promptly, and improve drainage immediately. There is no effective home-garden cure once plants collapse, so control is preventive and drainage-based. Prevention Plant on raised beds or mounds so water drains away, avoid wet low spots, water at the soil and do not overwater, and rotate away from peppers for several years. Keeping the ground from staying soggy is the key.Plant on raised, well-drained beds or hills, avoid low spots that stay wet, water at the soil rather than overhead, do not overwater, mulch to limit splash, rotate away from peppers and other susceptible crops for at least three to four years, and keep fruit up off saturated soil.
Symptoms Sunken round spots on the peppers, often with rings of tiny dark or pinkish specks, that spread into a soft rot. It is worst on ripening colored peppers in warm, wet weather.Sunken, circular lesions on the fruit that enlarge and develop concentric rings of small salmon to pink-colored spore masses, rotting the pepper; it hits ripening and colored fruit hardest. Warm, wet, humid weather near 80°F drives it, and it can ruin a late crop of banana peppers left on the plant to color. Cause A fungus carried on seed and in old plant debris that spreads in splashing water during warm, wet weather. Ripening peppers left on the plant are hit hardest.A complex of Colletotrichum fungi that survive inside or on the surface of seeds and on crop debris, spreading in rain splash from infected debris and soil. Warm, humid, rainy conditions near 80°F favor it, and fruit left to ripen fully on the plant in such weather is especially vulnerable. Organic treatment Pick off and throw away infected peppers right away, and keep the plants dry by watering at the soil. A labeled fungicide can protect the healthy fruit, but rotten ones cannot be saved.Remove and destroy infected fruit promptly to limit spread, and keep foliage and fruit as dry as possible. Where the disease is active a labeled fungicide applied from first fruit set can help protect healthy fruit, but rotted peppers cannot be saved. Prevention Use clean seed, do not plant peppers in the same spot for a few years, water at the base, give plants room for air to move, pick ripe peppers promptly, and clean up old plants at the end of the season.Start with clean, pathogen-free seed, rotate peppers out of the bed for two to three years, avoid overhead irrigation and water at the soil, mulch to limit splash, space for airflow, harvest ripe fruit promptly rather than letting it sit in wet weather, and remove crop debris at season's end.
Symptoms Leaves turn mottled light and dark green, crinkled or misshapen, and the plant is stunted with fewer, deformed peppers. Several viruses cause this, spread mostly by aphids and thrips. There is no cure once a plant has it.Leaves are mottled light and dark green, often puckered, narrowed, or distorted, and the plant is stunted with reduced, sometimes bumpy or ringspotted fruit. Several viruses, including cucumber mosaic, tobacco mosaic, and tomato spotted wilt, affect peppers, spread mainly by aphids and thrips or by handling. Symptoms are permanent, since there is no cure. Cause Plant viruses spread mostly by aphids and thrips, and some by touch. They cannot be cured, so they are managed by keeping the carriers down and removing infected plants.A group of viruses (including cucumber mosaic, tobacco mosaic, and tomato spotted wilt) transmitted mainly by aphids and thrips, and some, like tobacco mosaic, also by handling and on tools. They overwinter in weeds and perennials and are moved into the crop by their insect carriers. Organic treatment There is no cure, so pull and destroy any plant that shows mosaic symptoms so it does not spread to others, and wash your hands and tools. Keeping aphids and thrips down is the best defense.There is no cure; remove and destroy infected plants promptly so they do not serve as a virus reservoir, and wash hands and tools after handling them. Managing the aphids and thrips that spread the viruses is the real lever, along with controlling weed hosts. Prevention Look for resistant varieties, keep aphids, thrips, and weeds under control, do not handle plants right after using tobacco, and pull out infected plants as soon as you spot them.Choose resistant varieties where available (many peppers carry virus resistance), control aphids and thrips, keep weeds down around the garden, avoid handling plants after tobacco use (tobacco mosaic), use reflective mulch to repel aphids, and remove infected plants early.
Symptoms The plant wilts and dies suddenly, and at the base of the stem you find white fuzzy threads and tiny tan balls like mustard seeds. It happens in hot weather and is mainly a problem in the warm, humid South.A sudden wilt with a brown, rotting lesion girdling the stem right at the soil line, where a fan of white fungal threads and small tan, mustard-seed-sized resting bodies appear. The plant collapses and dies. It strikes in hot weather on many crops and is most damaging in the warm, humid South. Cause A soil fungus that attacks the base of the stem in hot weather. It lives in the soil for years and affects many kinds of plants, so it builds up where susceptible crops are grown repeatedly.Sclerotium rolfsii, a soilborne fungus with a very wide host range that survives in soil for years as tough resting bodies. It is favored by hot weather and high soil moisture, and by crop debris and mulch in contact with the stem. Organic treatment There is no cure, so pull and destroy any plant that collapses from it, taking some of the soil around the base with it. Prevention is the real answer for next season.There is no cure for an infected plant; remove and destroy it along with the soil immediately around the stem to carry off the resting bodies. Because it persists in soil, management is preventive. Prevention Rotate your crops, clean up or bury old plant debris, keep heavy mulch from piling against the stems, and improve drainage. In beds where it keeps appearing, solarizing the soil in summer helps.Rotate away from susceptible crops on a long cycle, bury crop debris deeply or remove it, keep mulch and soil pulled back from direct contact with the stem, improve drainage, and in problem beds deep plowing or soil solarization lowers the fungus.
