Billy wrote:
In article ,
Natural Girl wrote:

On 5/4/2013 10:19 PM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
Natural Girl wrote:

Has anyone grown those hot peppers before?

What sort of pests would be eating the daylights out of the
leaves? I planted a couple and have babied them through the
spring temps only to have something chew up those pretty leaves!

Any ideas? Will the plants survive being eaten like that?

As I grow older and mix up pyerthrum and rotenone in the crevices
of my mind, I find considerable benefit to just looking. But
carefully, and over longer periods of time than I could manage as
an impatient youngster. If you watch carefully (or let a cheap
videocamera do it), you may catch the leaf-eater in action.

Major leaf-eating is usually caterpillars around here - may be
leaf-cutting ants in other places. At least, that is, until you
move up to deer (rats with hooves) or rabbits. Telling the
difference involves looking at the way the leaf is eaten, for
tracks, for frass (caterpillar manure) and for webs. Or a line of
ants carrying leaf parts.

Look under the leaves, along the stems, look for/in rolled-up
leaves. Caterpillars can, surprisingly, be somewhat hard to spot as
they can match color very well (though some don't, in positively
Alice-in-Wonderland ways.) Any "spiderwebs" on the plant were
probably spun by and may be hiding a caterpillar.

Also look for egg masses under the leaves, but an egg mass isn't
eating - yet.


Thanks for the info ... now I'm going to practically dissecting my
pepper leaves.

All the advice is good, but you haven't told us if there are slugs or
snails in your garden.

I've been looking and haven't found any at all. When I planted these
peppers in this container there were ants in it, but they were like those
tiny black ones. I don't know if they chomp on pepper leaves or not.
Since I put diatomaceous earth all around the plant and some on the leaves I
haven't seen any further destruction of the leaves, but they were pretty
chewed up by then.

If you have them, Steve's suggestion that you
try a ferric phosphate (iron phosphate) bait is a good one. It is
harmless to just about everything except gastropods (slugs or
snails).

I'll have to get some of that slug bait. Thanks for the idea.

Do you have white flies?

I haven't seen any.

You may try spraying your plants
with water, especially underneath. To cover all bases, take a
flashlight and go look at your plants at night.

I've looked when it's getting dark, but not actually after it is dark. The
weather here has been cold and rainy for a while so I haven't wanted to get
myself out there to look after dark. But it's a good idea.

"The best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow."
- Anon



--
Natural Girl