Caterpillars destroyed both jalapeños

Wow.  This is my first year growing and my biggest pest has been fungus gnats so far.  I didn't realize caterpillars did so much damage.  Glad you have more plants!
 
Mike
 
mater worms ! nasty beotches , fishing bait !  nuke em !    look over all your plants very slowly under every leaf and smash em!  they chomped up my tomatoes a few years ago till i nuked them !     :onfire:
 
Believe me, I did kill them. I'm afraid one will definitely die, but the other might recover. I noticed leaves missing over the past week, but never thought it would be like this in the end
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
If those pictures are from today, do not give up...they SHOULD recover. 
Click to expand...
 
Yep you'd be surprised how well they can bounce back - both plants seem to still have some new leaf growth so they should turn out fine !
 
Those are called hornworms. They are from a moth. Normally they are not that bad the first year.

The moth lays the eggs on the plant, then the hornworms destroy anything they touch. Then they burrow into the ground and emerge as moths and the process begins.

Best way to get rid of them is check plants each morning for pepper seed sized and smaller eggs.

They are tan/white/brown. Normally laid on top of the plants leaves.
 
Tobacco hornworms, very vicious.  Cousin to the tomato hornworm.  They can eat a pepper or tomato plant down to nothing in no time at all.  You should see little leaves bud out in the next week.  Your plants will be behind a little bit but should recover.
 
Hornworm. Actually a caterpillar. They will destroy everything with no mercy.
You have to look close for them. Just found one on my chocolate hab. Fortunately, I dispatched it before any damage could be done.
 
There is hope!
In my humble bucket garden I've been hit with quite a barrage of pests this year and for whatever reason the Jalapeno and Serrano are getting hit the hardest.  The plants got hit with Aphids first, then an earwig population explosion (presumably due to the mostly absence of winter here) they really wrecked shop, almost killing my Basil and Jalapenos/Serranos overnight!  This left the remaining leaves munched, diseased looking, and the plants were stunted.  Big time.  Well my tomatoes got the damn horned worms and they did some damage to the tomatoes before I squished them and killed them with fire! :fire:  But they really finished off the foliage on my runted Serranos.  I'm not sure the type of hornworm, or if it is regionally different But I did find mine were leaving eggs that looked like pale green dots maybe the size of a pencil tip or smaller on the underside of leaves.  Like these:  
  http://chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/growingsmallfarms/GSFgraphics/hornwormeggtomato.jpg  
 
Well I didn't really document the pepper saga very well, here is the Serrano and how it is coping with being de-leafed and munched down.  This is about 6-8 days after it was naked stems:   
 
http://i.imgur.com/1hdehya.jpg  
 
I'm just too stubborn to admit defeat!  It's little and way behind, but it's alive!
That is vegatable oil next to it to try and attract earwigs, in case anyone was wondering.  
 Also shout out to mantis homies helping me hold it down out here: http://i.imgur.com/pcSmLey.jpg
 
EDIT:BTW folks, after reading the thread here on 30% sun shade I implemented that overhead of the plants and in the afternoon sun side.  They all seem to have had a little growth spurt after that (including sad Serrano).  I can't say with any conviction it was directly related to that, and not other factors.  But currently "it aint broke" so I'm rolling with it.   
Cheers pepper peeps!
 
Great stuff!
I wouldn't grow some plants without it.
 
5163_1.jpg
 
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