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What is eating/living inside my peppers and tomatoes?

backyardpepper

backyardpepper

I've been finding random tomatoes and peppers on the ground with tiny holes in them.. I thought nothing of it until my favorite plants pepper fell to the ground tonight. I went ahead and ripped open the pepper only to find a black goo inside with a BUNCH of little white worms in that goo. What is this and how do I get rid of it?
 
I've also been having problems with caterpillars, how do I keep them away too?
 
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I agree with BigB. I've never seen anything like that before. Are these pepper plants in the ground, or in pots? Could be a drainage/overwatering issue causing the infestation. Good luck with combating that.
 
Possibly pepper maggot. Are there little puncture marks on the outside of pods?  Not much you can do at this point if it is pepper maggots as the eggs have already been laid and maggots are inside eating. There are control methods you can read up on. Not sure if this is it as I've never seen them in person myself. Just from what I've read. Worms inside are usually wither pepper maggots or pepper weevil.
 
Caterpillars like Tomato Hornworm (if that's what you're referring to) you just have to pick by hand. I found probably 60 on my tomatoes this year. Luckily none on the peppers. If you see sections of leaves chewed look for little piles of black poo on the leaves and you'll find the caterpillar. Not sure what kind you're dealing with.
 
Scorched said:
 
 
Caterpillars like Tomato Hornworm (if that's what you're referring to) you just have to pick by hand. I found probably 60 on my tomatoes this year. Luckily none on the peppers. If you see sections of leaves chewed look for little piles of black poo on the leaves and you'll find the caterpillar. Not sure what kind you're dealing with.
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That's not always true. If you're lucky, you'll be visited by a parasitic wasp. I've seen a hornworm with a whole bunch of wasp egg larva things coming out of it. It was mad creepy and I freaked out, didn't know what it was.  But yea, I hate those buggers. Once you see one expect a horde. 
 
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