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pests Bugs in my pods!

RingburnDave said:
I just cut open one with the tinyest little dimple - it showed the same brown grit that others have but nowhere near as bad, but still no grub inside. Guess I'll go find all the pods with these little marks..

Thanks Prairie, I am also curious as to whether this is terminal for these plants or if I rid the plant of all affected fruit will the problem go away?

I have two ripe choc habs frozen which I'll need to check now to see if they're 'infected' hahaha.. don't want to eat all that brown crap :S
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My sister had pepper maggots last year and we ended up pulling the plants out of the ground. Now if you pull off all the affected pods and cover the plants with tulle or mosquito netting you will be ok. Other than that, the flies will keep laying eggs.
 
We, in the US may be calling pepper maggots what they are here but not in Australia....

the summary at the bottom of this link kinda leans that way...

http://www.ct.gov/CAES/cwp/view.asp?a=2815&q=376708&pp=12&n=1

still googlin' to see the range of this dreaded beast...

heres what I'm thinking...since the pepper maggot eats its way out of the pepper and drops onto the soil to "overwinter" and pupate, if you treat your soil, you can eliminate the issue...

:off to google how to treat the soil for pepper maggots:
 
AlabamaJack said:
heres what I'm thinking...since the pepper maggot eats its way out of the pepper and drops onto the soil to "overwinter" and pupate, if you treat your soil, you can eliminate the issue...

:off to google how to treat the soil for pepper maggots:
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Well my only concern would be where they originated from. When I checked last year it said they usually are found near water where a certain plant grows. In my sisters case, she lives about 2 blocks away from a creek. So if she were to kill all those in the soil my understanding would be that they would return. As a result, she has decided to avoid peppers, eggplants, etc. Her tomatoes were not attacked so she is going to go with that, herbs, corn, lettuce, etc.

Let me know if you find anything to the contrary.
 
yup...it seems once an infestation hits an area they are very hard to control....
 
AlabamaJack said:
yup...it seems once an infestation hits an area they are very hard to control....
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She plans to rely on me this season for peppers. The flies are attracked to thicker skinned pods so I am a little concerned that me growing bells for her may cause problems (I live 4 blocks from a pond). On the other hand, my dad grew bells 3 years ago with no problems. Atleast if they strike I will be able to spot them right away and take the needed precautions.
 
Ringburn, I have had the dreaded pepper maggot problem for the last couple of years and did some research on the problem and there is a means to treat them but you need to be licensed to even purchase the stuff. I cannot remember off hand the name of the stuff but it begins with the letter D. Something else I was thinking on doing was using Diotomaceous Earth which is fossilized shell flour and is very deadly to soft bodied insects. It would be very expensive for me though. If I find the name of the insecticide i will let you know.

Dale
 
I would cut away all pods period, and then hope for a better second harvest. Also, by doing this, you won't let the maggots develop so they won't be able to spread to your other plants.
 
Yah they're on all my fleshy-walled fruit.. either end of the garden. Must be a problem in my area which is annoying, means there's not much point in me trying to grow habs/nagas where I'm living at the moment.
 
Get some fruit fly bait and destroy any pods which get infected before the critters get out and back into the soil. You have to also remove any other fruit (citrus or whatever) which gets infested. If you don't break they cycle, you will never get ahead.
The good fruit fly baits will attract the males and help to reduce the number of larvae.


dreamboat
 
Just found the same thing in my pods, and being in Perth as well, hopefully we can combine our knowledge. Or drown our sorrow together. Anyway, they could be fruit fly, Mediterranean Fruit Fly to be exact, since that is the local flavour. According to Ag Department of WA, baiting will tell you if they are present, but isnt a control measure. Spraying, either only the affeted zone, or every damn thing you can think of, are the two methods used to control them. They recommend using a range of chemicals, so organic growers can stop reading now. One of them is Rogor (or something like that), a particularly horrible one that kills everything up to birds, I would hope no-one uses that one. The other options are less nasty, but will kill most insects present, cant remember them off the top of my head. Im going to spray with fipronil and vegemite (vegemite=protein, attracts the flies), and Im going to cover everything. Im sure some people would be horrified with this approach, Im happy with it. The only reason we have fipronil is we own a broadacre cropping farm, we use it when locust plagues come through (and very sparingly), the only other people who commonly use it are the termite guys. Will let you guys know how it goes. Fipronil isnt recommended by the Ag department, but it should be less nasty than what they advise, while still getting the job done. Plus, the cockroaches will disappear for a while!
 
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