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Chili worms

Philipperv

Philipperv

Banned
Have any of you ever heard of very tiny red ants that bite tiny holes in fruit/vegetables and then lay eggs inside that turn into these types of worms? They eat your chilis from the inside out!

 
There's no flies involved. I've seen the tiny red ants actually biting the holes in the chilis. Damnest thing!
 
Philipperv said:
There's no flies involved. I've seen the tiny red ants actually biting the holes in the chilis. Damnest thing!
Click to expand...

But are they putting the worm eggs in the pepper, or is another insect using the holes the ants chew?

Now you've made me curious, is there some Philippine bug expert you can ask?
 
Philliperv,

Possibly a pepper weevil. I have a friend in Florida who had severe issues with these insects. The problem sounds very similar. He lost a lot of his commercial crop to these things.

Chris


Philipperv said:
Have any of you ever heard of very tiny red ants that bite tiny holes in fruit/vegetables and then lay eggs inside that turn into these types of worms? They eat your chilis from the inside out!

Click to expand...
 
Pam said:
But are they putting the worm eggs in the pepper, or is another insect using the holes the ants chew?

Now you've made me curious, is there some Philippine bug expert you can ask?
Click to expand...

Yeah i'm curious now too. I'll gather some ants up and do an experiment with 1 chili. If worms result then it will be the ants. No I don't know of any bug experts around here.
 
Ok, now that I'm at work, I watched the video. That jumping thing they do is pretty weird. I wonder if that would help you ID them.

You could, I suppose, let one get to be an adult, and see what they are. Once we had an adult bug, we could key it out.
 
Pam said:
You could, I suppose, let one get to be an adult, and see what they are. Once we had an adult bug, we could key it out.
Click to expand...

That's the funny thing. They split after eating all they can from inside the chilis and I never see them again. The ones I "evict" myself just die. I can even see the red chili juice right through their bodies.
 
Philipperv said:
That's the funny thing. They split after eating all they can from inside the chilis and I never see them again. The ones I "evict" myself just die. I can even see the red chili juice right through their bodies.
Click to expand...

Could be tasty :lol:
 
Yeah that's the worms all right but i've never seen this fly around. If that fly was the root of my problem my yard would be filled with them. I conferred with a lady that sells pesticides and she is familiar with the ants that produce this worm. I'll take a video of them in action and post it sometime in the near future.
 
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