Yeah I bet anything that's from earwigs. I just lived with it; it was only effecting a small percentage of my harvest. But, last year, my very first ripe chocolate Brainstrain pod, which looked fine otherwise, had been earwigged. I didn't notice til I'd picked it. That was the first time I'd ever grown those, and that was the first pod, so I was dismayed...(by season's end, though, I'd definitely had my fill of Chocolate Brainstrains...)
After that, I swore that I'd eff up any earwigs I saw by my plants. . . But I rarely saw any, except if they popped out of a pod while I was harvesting and ended up caught in the bag I was carrying the peppers in.
But yeah, if they aren't eating anything, just drilling the hole, that's earwigs. Pepper Maggots don't show noticeable holes; the parental fly can "knock-up" a pod without any easily noticeable point of entry. Slugs and snails definitely eat more, and will chomp leaves. Same can be said for mammalian pests.
But what you're showing above, that's an earwig's doing.
Incidentally, another gardener told me that there's something good to use as earwig bait... Like, i forget what it was, but the idea was you put something--some kind of food-- in a jar in your garden, and when you check the jar, several earwigs will be partly trapped in there and then you whoop their azzes. Repeat until you don't get holes anymore. But I don't recall what the "bait" item was and, tbh, I never tried it so I can't vouch for its efficacy.
However, the saucer full of beer trick will attract and drown slugs to very good effect.
After that, I swore that I'd eff up any earwigs I saw by my plants. . . But I rarely saw any, except if they popped out of a pod while I was harvesting and ended up caught in the bag I was carrying the peppers in.
But yeah, if they aren't eating anything, just drilling the hole, that's earwigs. Pepper Maggots don't show noticeable holes; the parental fly can "knock-up" a pod without any easily noticeable point of entry. Slugs and snails definitely eat more, and will chomp leaves. Same can be said for mammalian pests.
But what you're showing above, that's an earwig's doing.
Incidentally, another gardener told me that there's something good to use as earwig bait... Like, i forget what it was, but the idea was you put something--some kind of food-- in a jar in your garden, and when you check the jar, several earwigs will be partly trapped in there and then you whoop their azzes. Repeat until you don't get holes anymore. But I don't recall what the "bait" item was and, tbh, I never tried it so I can't vouch for its efficacy.
However, the saucer full of beer trick will attract and drown slugs to very good effect.
