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I feel like crying!

B

bubba82

Some nasty pest is going to town on my chilli plants, and i could honestly cry :tear:
 
does anyone have an idea what might be doing this? this is my dorset naga x habanero hybrid, but it's not the only plant affected, my scotch bonnet has been eaten to this state and whatever it is has now started on my basket of fire (though i'm not convinced that it's not a jalapeño) and has even had a go at one of the chilli pods!! i've hada look under leaves, pot rims and bottoms of pots to try and find the perpetrator but no sign of anything! i've always had some ants on my plants but they've never seemed to cause any damage previously and i use canna cure once a week, please help????
 
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 Could be slugs,grasshoppers,  or caterpillars, and  many other bad insects . I would start by setting a small bowl filled( at the base of the plant )  with some cheap beer and see if anything takes a drink . Maybe spray plant with some 7 dust or something like that . 
 
bubba82 said:
Some nasty pest is going to town on my chilli plants, and i could honestly cry :tear:
 
does anyone have an idea what might be doing this? this is my dorset naga x habanero hybrid, but it's not the only plant affected, my scotch bonnet has been eaten to this state and whatever it is has now started on my basket of fire (though i'm not convinced that it's not a jalapeño) and has even had a go at one of the chilli pods!! i've hada look under leaves, pot rims and bottoms of pots to try and find the perpetrator but no sign of anything! i've always had some ants on my plants but they've never seemed to cause any damage previously and i use canna cure once a week, please help????
 
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Throw a net over it for now, and maybe bring it inside for a bit. It will be much branchier when it recovers, which means a higher yield.
 
will try the beer trap tonight thanks, though will more than likely have drunk cockroaches in it by the morning (hazards of living in spain!) and get some netting tomorrow, any chance birds could do this? i have noticed sparrows near the plants although they could be praying on whatever is munching my plants i guess
 
i've just bought some chilli plants off a local grower and worried that whatever has done this is going to attack my new plants too
 
bubba82 said:
will try the beer trap tonight thanks, though will more than likely have drunk cockroaches in it by the morning (hazards of living in spain!) and get some netting tomorrow, any chance birds could do this? i have noticed sparrows near the plants although they could be praying on whatever is munching my plants i guess
 
i've just bought some chilli plants off a local grower and worried that whatever has done this is going to attack my new plants too
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Probably not birds. There might be some that eat plants, but them eating bugs is more likely.
 
Go out late at night or very early morning while still dark out and have a look. Some things feed at night like slugs. My plants had similar damage and it took me forever to find the culprit. Used beer traps assuming it was slugs but got nothing. It ended up being Asiatic garden beetles. They only feed at night and they were completely destroying my plants. I kept finding little brown beetles burrowed down in the first inch of soil around the inside of my containers and just assumed they were harmless. Boy was I wrong. Finally googled them and found out what they were. Take your finger and dig around the soil along the container wall and see if you find anything. They burrow down and sleep during the day and come out to feed at night. Whatever it is it's a chewer like caterpillar, slug, beetle, grasshopper so if it comes down to it 7 dust like Romy said will work
 
I can't believe I've seen carbaryl recommended twice in this thread. Sevin will totally decimate both good and bad insect populations (including honeybees) and it's probably not safe to put on food (regardless of what Bayer says)...why else would they recommend it not being handled by pregnant women? 
 
Try the beer traps first, I'm almost sure it's slugs which may be hanging out under your containers.  If it was really anything else like hornworms you would see droppings at the base of the plants.
 
The plant will be fine, the new grow will produce even more fruit.
 
I'm not sure it would be slugs as never seen a slug here in South east spain, we don't really have the climate for them, a friend has said maybe locusts :( though I think Scorched might be on to something with the night feeding as i've checked 3x rough the day and no sign of anything, will brave the tiger mozzies tonight and have a look...
I have also seen what I assumed to be bird poo on a couple of leaves, willpost a pick later just in case it isn't from a bird
 
Could also be a neiborhood cat. My cat is always trying to munch on my plants. AACT is also a decent way to keep pests at bay. Not 100% effective,but,won't harm soil or beneficial insects. Plants love it as well.
 
I'd start with 3 days of spraying Spinosad. Wait a week and see if the damage continues. If so, 3 days spraying Bacillus thuringiensis will most likely stop the attack. I spray BT one a month to stop infestations.
 
On the bright side the plant does have some decent new growth going so should recover fairly quickly and the damage doesn't seem to be done by one of the pests that can inflict disease into the plant - so once you find out what is causing it and remedy that the plant should recover fine.
 
I found several horned / spiked caterpillars and my damage looked very similar to yours.  I had to look very carefully since they blend in pretty well.  I'd look for them daily until you notice that the damage has stopped.  I snipped off all the leaves that had damage to them so I had a gauge if the munching was still active.
 
M
 
I had all kind of pest problems this year aphids leaf miners earwigs, Horn worms- I went out a dropped the cash for Azamax & BT and an Atomizer after 2 treatments I haven't had a problem since :)
 
Gargoyle91 said:
I had all kind of pest problems this year aphids leaf miners earwigs, Horn worms- I went out a dropped the cash for Azamax & BT and an Atomizer after 2 treatments I haven't had a problem since :)
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Atomizer is a nice tool if you can afford it, nice :)
 
Check your spinosad label instructions...3 consecutive treatments in a week is a bit excessive. Typical label instructions are a max of 6 applications over an entire year with a minimum of 4 days between applications. I understand kicking it up a notch or two but that's a bit much. But for sure think about using it if its in your budget.
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Most caterpillars that I've seen/watched/killed are lazy and don't go far from their food source...also, slugs typically leave a slime trail. I'd be leaning toward grasshopper/locust. They love to eat and run. The plant looks small enough that you may be able to rig something to screen it off until it recovers a bit.
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As for treating it, diatomaceous earth is a good start and so would be a pyrethrin with an extender in it such as Piperonyl butoxide. One grinds up their insides and the other is a great repellant and organic. I'd lean the repellant route as you don't want to cover up your remaining leaves too much with white powder (DE) so they can feed on sunlight.
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Also, neem coated leaves (top and bottom) would not be very appetizing either....
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Go easy and treat in the evenings as your plant is probably already pretty stressed out.
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Let us know what you find.
 
Kikaida said:
Check your spinosad label instructions...3 consecutive treatments in a week is a bit excessive. Typical label instructions are a max of 6 applications over an entire year with a minimum of 4 days between applications. I understand kicking it up a notch or two but that's a bit much. But for sure think about using it if its in your budget.
-
Most caterpillars that I've seen/watched/killed are lazy and don't go far from their food source...also, slugs typically leave a slime trail. I'd be leaning toward grasshopper/locust. They love to eat and run. The plant looks small enough that you may be able to rig something to screen it off until it recovers a bit.
-
As for treating it, diatomaceous earth is a good start and so would be a pyrethrin with an extender in it such as Piperonyl butoxide. One grinds up their insides and the other is a great repellant and organic. I'd lean the repellant route as you don't want to cover up your remaining leaves too much with white powder (DE) so they can feed on sunlight.
-
Also, neem coated leaves (top and bottom) would not be very appetizing either....
-
Go easy and treat in the evenings as your plant is probably already pretty stressed out.
-
Let us know what you find.
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Not anymore excessive than using Pyrethrin...
 
This damage isn't that much of a setback. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of my brown moruga, brazillian ghost, and purple ghost scorpion. Now there are some recovery stories. They were little more than sticks with broad mites all over them a couple weeks ago.
 
still can't catch the blighter in action :( and this is how my naga hybrid and scotch bonnet are looking today even though i sprayed them with canna cure yesterday :( also pics of the poop on 2 of the other plants, i thought this was bird poop but just in case it isn't??
 
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ok i think it's possibly a cutworm, i can't find it/them but had a look at damage they make online and looks very similar, so yesterday i crushed up some egg shells and mixed in some cornmeal and put it around the base of each of the affected plants (didn't have enough to do all my plants) and this morning when i had a look i couldn't see anymore damage so fingers crossed :pray:
 
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