Got Pests? Do This For Your Peppers

Here are some of the most common garden pests you may encounter on your pepper plants. Learn how to identify and treat them before they get out of control.

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Aphids video:

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#peppers #gardening #gardeningtips

[lucanagni]

Wow, so apparently the creature that was eating my peppers last September was a cutworm! I found it curled up inside one of my ripening pods a few days after I noticed its presence (some of the pods had started falling off and they had large holes in them). Thanks for the info!

[MightyGreedo]

I had an issue with tiny white aphids on my lettuce plants last season. Thankfully, that was the only plant they seemed to be interested in. I mostly used the hose to blast them off, but once things started getting out of hand I carefully removed the plant and bagged it and trashed it. Very unpleasant to see 50 -100 bugs crawling over something that I intended to eat.

[MichaelRei]

It’s not Sunday morning without a Pepper Geeks video! Thanks for the great info! It was definitely not boring!!

[michaelglenn]

I’m already dealing with aphids!!! Down here in Texas

[zacwebb]

I put down mulch this year to preserve soil moisture. The cover comes with more pests, so I planted many more trap crops and flowers to mitigate them.

[julie-annepineau]

Earwigs and grasshoppers were a problem for me last year. I found a frog and put it in my polytunnel and my pest issues went down. When I saw it later in the season it had grown significantly. Highly recommend!

[alysonbaker]

I’m glad you mentioned cutworms as I haven’t found much in the way of controlling them. I use collars and have a few ‘replacement’ plants. I have used BT on brassicas for the green worms but not cut worms. With climate change, I’m seeing different pests each year. Great video, thanks

[anniemorrison]

I had lots of Japanese beetles last year. I used the traps as well as a bucket of soapy water with an attractant hanging over the bucket. These pests gave my strawberries grief and I did pluck a lot of them off by hand as well. This year I am putting all my plants in a chicken run with netting over the whole thing. I also use shade cloth in the hot summer months. This means I have to hand pollinate, but it is worth it to me. Thanks for the info!

[gorathsghost]

The corn borer that was my problem last year with my halapenos. Didn't know how they got in until now ty!!!

[Diabeticgardener]

We had slugs really bad followed by aphids and then some beetles followed by more aphids. But we had forgotten to plant our sunflowers last year

[terrysmallwood]

Last years we had horn worms eat whole large mammoth jalapeños over night not only leaves but peppers as well😮

[userbosco]

Great video! Leaf-footed and stink bugs seem to bee the biggest challenge here in coastal VA. They like to wait until your fruit is almost ripe then chomp on them. Really challenging to deal with. We don't use any man-made pest control products, so when they show up it's a scramble to save the fruit.

[AmandaHayes]

I just got aphids on my indoor peppers for the first time. I guess since they're indoor plants they don't have any predators to keep them in check!

[WisGuy]

Which to plant: saved seeds or year-old leftovers?

I had about half a dozen pepper varieties I planted last season that I definitely want to grow again and I saved seeds from those peppers, generally from the largest, nicest peppers of that variety that I grew. However, in planning my plantings this spring, I found that I still had leftover seeds for those peppers in the 2023 seed packets. Which would you plant this year, the seeds saved in the fall of 2023, or the year older leftover seeds still in the 2023 commercial seed packets?

Thanks!

[nancyk]

Spider mites is my number 1 nemesis in the garden.

[helengabr]

Thanks for very detailed information on the various bugs. We get a lot of tiny spiders on all our nightshades. I used rosemary tea with clove oil but there are so many i could spend all my time spraying. At night these critters are incredibly active. They also attack my Moringa trees. When i shone a light on them i saw many tiny larvae scaling down the web silk like steeplejacks! 😅. No kidding! Any extra tips on dealing with spider mites?

P.s. just found your very comprehensive video about spider mites 👍❤

[brianjohnston]

I had aphids on my pepper starts from a greenhouse they were too small to blast with water so I used neem oil which moved the aphids from their resting places I then used a headlamp, qtips, and tweezers and removed the aphids and egg pods.

I regularly inspect and remove any insects daily and aphids seem to have disappeared altogether.

[lojoeoutdoors]

We have slugs EVERYWHERE! I use that same slug bait under decks, and it also gets tossed onto the wetter places that they'll hang out like the edge of the woods. I also go out with chopsticks and beer at night and pull them off.

[we_want_chilli_willy]

It's Autumn here now in New Zealand but I had a shocking aphid infestation over the summer, absolutely ruined my plants. The previous season was fine, had a bumper crop

[jtmarshall]

Woooh!!! Just checked for a new video a half hour ago 😂