Invisible leaf assassins attacking my hab! What should I do?

sreinhard88

sreinhard88

About a week or two ago I brought my plants indoors so I could continue growing year round.  Things were going pretty well until I noticed one of my leaves on my hab had some holes in it, then a few more holes, then more leaves had holes, and it doesn't seem to be getting better!  I sprayed the leaves with a fungicide/insecticide/miticide, but it doesn't seem to have stopped whatever is eating my leaves.  
 
This is all I've come up with during my investigation:
1-they eat holes in the entire leaf except for the major "veins" in the leaf
 
2-underneath the leaves that have been eaten a lot of small black dots have been left behind (excrement maybe?) size and consistency of finely ground black pepper
 
3-a few leaves have some kind of silvery spots on them
 
4-Very tiny flying bugs (looks like gnats to me) flying around
 
5- Unlikely culprits include two slugs I found (now disposed of) and a cricket that has made residence under my jalapeno pot
 
Any ideas as to what is eating my leaves?  I never see them at work but everytime I go to inspect them there is more damage
 
PepperDaddler said:
I would say the now gone slugs. Especially since they were inside and nothing else could really get to them.
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I figured the slugs would go after the peppers, not the leaves, plus some of the leaves are way out of their reach and there's no slime trail left behind.  Not to mention the problem hasn't gone away since I got rid of the slugs
 
I don't think their "jaws" or whatever chewing organs they may have would be strong enough to bite through a pepper. Not what I would think they are after. Whatever has nutrients that is easiest to digest is what they have evolved to "chew" up.
 
Think of when you bite into a hab or really any other pepper. How much force does it really take you to get through that initial skin? 
 
 A lot more force than they have I am sure. Just my opinion.
 
Pictures would help. Another possibility is broad mites - they tend to go after mature leaves, and tend to make "holes" in the body of the leaf rather than at the edge. I quote "holes" because if you look very closely, you'll find that broad mites do not actually cut holes in the leaves. Instead, they suck the sap out of individual cells, leaving only the leaf's skeleton behind. If the leaves have true holes, however, the problem is not broad mites. Note that some mites cannot be seen with the naked human eye. You need to get a jeweler's loupe at least 30x to see them.
 
It gives almost a swiss cheese look to them? I've been finding caterpillars randomly on my plants.... the smaller ones seem to go for the inside and then go after the edges when they're bigger.... and they fight back when I try to pull them off.... headbutting the stick or pliers or whatever I'm using at the time....
 
Caterpillars usually start at the edges and work their way in, but this behavior can vary. They'll also go after the pods. Broad mites do leave the appearance of a swiss cheese type of effect at first. But again, if you look really closely, you'll see the skeletal remains instead of a true hole if it's broad mites.
 
I've found the culprit! Twas a small (roughly 1") bright green caterpillar that blends in perfectly with the underside of the leaf.  I hope it was the only one; I did a pretty thorough check of the rest of the affected areas but didn't see any, so I cut off those leaves to see if new ones show up.  I'll try to put up a picture soon.
 
If its the same ones I've been dealing with, they seem to show up out of nowhere.... at least with the hornworms, I see some of the eggs....
Mine tend to nibble here and then move somewhere else and nibble and move and nibble....
 
rhm3769 said:
If its the same ones I've been dealing with, they seem to show up out of nowhere.... at least with the hornworms, I see some of the eggs....
Mine tend to nibble here and then move somewhere else and nibble and move and nibble....
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Yea that seems to be the same tactic this one was using.  I had him in a makeshift "holding cell" so I could take a picture and show y'all, but he somehow escaped and went to work on my jalapeno plant, so I decided to just cut him half and dispose of him before I lost more leaves.  What do the eggs look like?  There's a lot of small round black things left behind but I'm hoping that's just frass and not eggs
 
I haven't seen eggs for these.... hornworm eggs are small and round and are any shade between almost clear and a light yellowish tint.... with hornworms, I never find just one, with these small green caterpillars, ill find one here and there....
 
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