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pests Note burn, aphids, or mites?

S

Solinari619

Hello this is my first topic so please bear with me.

This is my first time growing peppers. I bought a six pack of different peppers from wal mart on or around April 14. Everything was going good until about 20 days ago I started to notice some leaf curl. Now I am seeing some severely curl and the leaves of the pepper plants are not looking the dark green color of the limegreen color. I inspected that about two weeks ago and saw little bugs that I thought were aphids and I bought ladybugs and I have not seen the little bugs since but I am worried that I have gone from a large infestation to small one.

Fertilize them every two weeks with guano and fish fertilizer. I give them Tea about every week as a foliar spray and a water them with what is left.

Trying to post a picture but can't figure out how to on an ipad.
 
First of all...  :welcome:  from sunny South Florida!  :woohoo:
 
Secondly, it'd be significantly easier to try to post pictures from a computer. There are several good sites to host the pictures, such as Photobucket, Fotki, and others, and user the URL to put the pics up here. Also, there's several resources to use to check what kind of bug or nute issue you have. Here's one that's pretty extensive: http://juanitospeppers.com/media/SEM-12095_PepperDiseases_8p5x11_072313.pdf
 
First blush, I'd say you have thrips and/or broad mites. The leaves I've had on my plants are like that, and several people noted thrips and broad mites cause that kind of damage and they're often too small to see with the naked eye.
 
Best solution is to go to Home Depot, buy some neem oil (it's in the insectiside aisle), as well as a 1-gallon sprayer, and spray your plants with it. It disrupts the life cycle of both thrips and broad mites, causing them to forget to eat, reproduce, etc., and they die in short order, and also kills their eggs & takes care of several types of fungus to boot. And don't worry, neem oil doesn't affect pollenators like bees, butterflies, etc.
 
Pyrethrum is also particularly effective against broad mites & thrips, and kills them both on contact. Like neem oil, it's considered a biopesticide, meaning it's a natural biodegradeable chemical that can be used up to the harvest date of your peppers.
 
I agree with thrips. In fact, I'm almost positive. Good call.
 
Broad mite causes the leaves to curl down and go almost "claw-like". Very distinct. Not the case here.
 
Will Neem Oil also cure aphid infestations?  Cause ive been using the liquid soup stuff and they come back every 2-3 days after the spray.
 
Emald, yes it will. It affects aphids as well as the buggers I listed above. Just be sure to spray it thoroughly in every part of the plant, since like with thrips, all they need is one or two to survive in a nook or cranny of a gnarled leaf, then you'll have to start all over again in no time.
 
Awesome.. I will go buy some then this weekend.. my plants look like they are ready to bloom... but i dont want them to bloom into an infestation.
 
Emald001 said:
Will Neem Oil also cure aphid infestations?  Cause ive been using the liquid soup stuff and they come back every 2-3 days after the spray.
Click to expand...
 
Long term solution... look into trap crops that will distract the little buggers from your chilli plants and crops that attract beneficial insects such as ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic wasps, etc, who will destroy the aphids for you. Fortunately, at least as is the case with the aphids I have here, chilli plants are not on the top of the list of their most favourite hosts. That's not to say they don't infest my chilli plants from time to time but generally they will keep away if there is something else growing here they like more and there are plenty of good guys around to kick their ass and keep their numbers in check. Also fortunately for me, their favourite host appears to be a weed (or so-called weed, but I don't think so because it is beneficial to me) that pops up around the place here so little effort is required on my part. :D
 
It might take a bit of effort to establish such an environment but it is well worth it in the run long.
 
That being said, effectiveness may also depend on the type of aphid too. I dare say different types have different host preferences.
 
Something to consider/look more into/experiment with.
 
gasificada said:
Thanks for the imput... but unfortunately, I have my plants up on a balcony.  Its mostly isolated, but its outside.  There are really noother weeds or plants around(except accross the street).  Either way, i can buy some lady bugs.. but they will end up flying away hahaha... I was just looking for something to kill them and regulate them. 
Long term solution... look into trap crops that will distract the little buggers from your chilli plants and crops that attract beneficial insects such as ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic wasps, etc, who will destroy the aphids for you. Fortunately, at least as is the case with the aphids I have here, chilli plants are not on the top of the list of their most favourite hosts. That's not to say they don't infest my chilli plants from time to time but generally they will keep away if there is something else growing here they like more and there are plenty of good guys around to kick their ass and keep their numbers in check. Also fortunately for me, their favourite host appears to be a weed (or so-called weed, but I don't think so because it is beneficial to me) that pops up around the place here so little effort is required on my part. :D
 
It might take a bit of effort to establish such an environment but it is well worth it in the run long.
 
That being said, effectiveness may also depend on the type of aphid too. I dare say different types have different host preferences.
 
Something to consider/look more into/experiment with.
Click to expand...
 
Emald001 said:
Thanks for the imput... but unfortunately, I have my plants up on a balcony.  Its mostly isolated, but its outside.  There are really noother weeds or plants around(except accross the street).  Either way, i can buy some lady bugs.. but they will end up flying away hahaha... I was just looking for something to kill them and regulate them.
Click to expand...
Yes, fair enough, that should be considered too haha. I don't have enough experience with neem to comment on it, but what elcap said, when using stuff like soap or neem, coverage is key.
 
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