Holes in Pepper Plant Leaves And How to Combat The Culprits

Have you spotted holes in your pepper plants? Whether you are growing them in a greenhouse or open field, these could be telltale signs of pest attacks. A few of these little troublemakers can ruin your entire harvest in no time.

But don’t worry! You can sidestep any major damage by spotting the problem early and employing effective pest-control strategies. Let’s dig into the specifics. 

Holes Appeared on The Leaves of Peppers

Now, if the leaves of your sweet peppers are turning into Swiss cheese, who’s behind this gourmet feast?

Holes in leaves and fruits serve as a red flag that pests have taken a liking to your vegetable crops.

If you happen upon caterpillars or other signs of plant infestation, it’s time to spring into action. Leaving this unchecked can turn managing the issue into a real headache.

Knowing the key indicators associated with different types of pests can make it easier to pinpoint who’s been treating your peppers as their personal salad bar.

Slugs

Meet the slug, a notorious adversary of sweet pepper plants. This terrestrial mollusk might remind you of a shell-less snail. It even comes equipped with numerous tiny teeth to grind up its meals.

If a slug has been dining on my plant, I have noticed that they make perfectly round holes on the leaves and chewed-up edges.

These critters don’t stop at the leaves; they’re also known to damage the fruits, leaving behind characteristic marks.

Another telltale sign of a slug’s visit is white trails on your pepper leaves. This is nothing but the dried-up slime that the mollusk leaves in its wake as it slithers around.

Slugs are creatures of the night, spending their days tucked about 1 inch into the soil, the same place they lay their eggs.

These pepper enemies will perish if the conditions aren’t right for reproducing. Slugs thrive in temperatures up to 77°F. They fancy moist soil and densely populated plantings.

Aphids

Aphids are common culprits that plague peppers in the garden. Both open fields and greenhouse plants are at their mercy.

Peppers are susceptible to both black and green aphids. The pests set up shop on the underside of the leaves, munching away at the plant’s fruits, leaves, and stems.

Several signs indicate an aphid presence:

• Deformed and wilting leaves
• Dry, round patches and the presence of holes on leaves and fruits
• A sticky, sweet coating on the leaves
• Black specks – sooty mold

Aphids infest bell peppers due to improperly prepared soil in the fall or spring.

The pest’s eggs overwinter beneath fallen leaves, and with the onset of spring warmth, females emerge in large numbers to lay their eggs on the plants.

The peak aphid attack on sweet pepper plants occurs in the first month of summer.

Colorado Beetles

Among the foes of peppers, the Colorado beetle larvae stand out. Many orange eggs appear on both sides of the leaves, laid by adult beetles.

Important! Combat this issue using specialized garden-friendly insecticides like Monterey Garden Insect Spray.

However, the pests can adapt to chemical substances, becoming resistant, complicating the battle against them.

If holes start appearing in the central part of the leaf blade, it means the larvae are feasting on the peppers.

Next, they’ll gnaw the leaf edges. If you don’t take action, the pest will leave only bare stalks.

Cutworm

Peppers are threatened by over a hundred different species of cutworms. The enemy infiltrates the garden disguised as an inconspicuous brownish or gray moth bearing kidney-shaped orange spots on its wings.

The cutworm caterpillar, green with a lettuce-like stripe on the side and transverse lines on its back, only surfaces at night.

The cutworm similarly devours vegetable crops to other caterpillar species. It eats the leaf blade around the edges and may damage fruits. The pest is most active during the summer months.

Pests Typical for Greenhouses

When growing peppers in a greenhouse, the main enemy is the aphid. Aphid infestations often occur against the backdrop of overfeeding plants with nitrogen fertilizers.

Apart from aphids, other pests also munch on the vegetable crop in greenhouse conditions. They include:

• Whitefly. This insect settles on the lower leaves and resembles a small moth. Signs of their presence are similar to aphid damage. Whitefly activity interferes with fruit ripening.
• Mole Cricket. A large insect, brown in color with short wing covers and digging claws. Mole crickets dig tunnels in the soil, feeding on the roots and stems of bell peppers.
• Root-knot Nematode. This parasite attacks the plant’s root system, leading to its death.
• Thrips. The appearance of yellow or grayish spots on the leaf blades identifies the pest. The parasite is eliminated by spraying the plants with special biological or chemical preparations.

Pests For Open Fields

Bell pepper crops grown in open field conditions are more frequently threatened by Colorado beetles than their greenhouse counterparts. They are also susceptible to attacks from:

• Spider Mites. This tiny, semi-transparent parasite is hard to spot with the naked eye. Its presence is revealed by yellow spots on the plant (leaves, stems, flowers). The appearance of cobwebs under the leaves also indicates the pest’s presence. An infested plant can die.
• Ants. They are attracted to bushes infested with aphids. The appearance of a massive ant colony is visible to the naked eye. The stems end up densely covered with insects.
• Seedcorn Maggots. The adult is a gray insect with brown stripes on the front of the body, consuming the sprouts of the vegetable crop, while its larvae harm sprouting seeds.

How to Get Rid of These Pests

Choosing the right treatment for your bell pepper plants – whether it’s chemicals or home remedies – and the duration of treatment depends on the following:

• The type of pest.
• The number of insects.
• The stage of infestation of the plant.

Check out my other articles that delve into the common pests that can affect pepper plants, and discover various methods – homemade and chemical – to combat them effectively.

Folk Remedies

There’s a great alternative to chemical treatments for pest control—folk remedies and physical interventions. These are safe, affordable, and easily accessible to gardeners.

To get rid of slugs, here’s what you need to do:

1. Keep your garden tidy by removing weeds and plant debris.
2. Dig trenches between rows of pepper plants and fill them with lime, ash, crushed black pepper, or tobacco dust. Slugs won’t be able to crawl over these barriers.
3. Cover plants with a plastic film. Pests creeping under it at night will be killed by the daytime heat.
4. Sprinkle the ground with lime after heavy rain or thorough watering.

You can tackle aphids on pepper leaves with these homemade solutions:

1. Soapy ash solution: Mix one cup of ash in a bucket of water and let it sit for a day. Enrich the solution with a cup of liquid soap. Spray on the plants after aphid extermination.
2. Wormwood infusion: Soak wormwood in water and let it steep for a day, then use it to treat the plants.
3. Onion peel solution: Use one cup of dry onion peel for one liter of boiling water. Let the solution sit for 12 hours.
4. Pine solution: Fill a container with pine needles up to one-third, then top up with water. Boil for 60 minutes and let it steep for a day.

As for the Colorado potato beetle, these measures should do the trick:

1. Regularly pick larvae and beetles off the plants.
2. Plant garlic or marigolds near your pepper plants. The scent of these plants repels the pest.
3. Make a solution from a cup of ash, 2-7 ounces (50-200 grams) of wormwood, and 2.5 gallons (10 liters) of boiling water. Let it steep for three hours, strain it, and spray it on your plants.

To fight cutworms, create traps from cut plastic bottles. Hang them a meter above the ground and use over-fermented jam or juice as bait. You can also handpick caterpillars at night.

To get rid of whiteflies, try this:

1. Spray water to wash off adult insects and larvae, then treat the leaves with a soap solution.
2. Use homemade yellow and bright blue traps. You can make them by applying a sticky compound to a brightly colored board.
3. Biological method: Release ladybugs in your greenhouse or make an herbal infusion. For a week, crush a garlic head and soak it in water ( ⅛ gallon). Before use, dilute 5 grams in ¼ gallon (1 L) of water and spray your pepper plants.

To eliminate mole crickets, use a light trap. Set it up with a lamp and a container filled with water-kerosene.

To fight the parasite, look for its egg-laying spots and larvae from the end of May until early summer. Regularly loosen the soil and treat the found mole cricket paths with soapy water.

Special adhesive traps work wonders against whiteflies.

Here’s how you can eliminate root-knot nematodes:

1. Pour boiling water about 16-20 inches (40-50 cm) deep into the soil and then cover the bed with a film for 4 hours.
2. Clear pepper roots of soil and dip them in water at about 122-140°F (50-60°C). The worms die within five minutes. Soak the plant roots in hot water for 30 minutes to destroy the pest eggs.

Here is how to get rid of spider mites:

A useful tool against spider mites is a solution made by adding kerosene (0.07 oz or 2 g) and soap shavings (1.4 oz or 40 g) to warm water (2.6 gallons or 10 liters). Use this solution to water the affected plants.

Tobacco infusion can also help rid you of mites. To prepare it, steep 14 oz (400 g) of tobacco leaves in boiling water (2.6 gallons or 10 liters).

Let it sit for several hours, then bring it to a boil again. Dilute the decoction in water (2.6 gallons or 10 liters) and add laundry soap (1.4 oz or 40 g). Use this solution to treat leaf blades.

You can eliminate an ant colony by killing its queen and destroying the anthill. Pour boiling water over it or cover it with a thick layer of hot ash.

Another way to combat ants is by placing a honey-filled jar or sweet water near the ant trail. Once trapped, ants can’t escape.

Here’s how you can get rid of thrips:

1. Rinse the pests off with a water stream.
2. Use a yellow or blue sticky trap.
3. Spray the peppers with a marigold decoction and steep for a few days.
4. Use garlic water made from water (8.5 oz or 250 ml) and a crushed garlic head.

Preventive Measures

You can prevent the appearance of hole-ridden leaves when growing bell peppers with these preventive measures:

1. Regular soil aeration.
2. Spraying plants with garlic or soap water or an ash infusion.
3. Regular weeding.
4. Disinfecting soil and greenhouses in the fall.

Key Takeaways

1. Holes in the leaves of sweet pepper plants are often signs of pests such as slugs, aphids, Colorado beetles, cutworms, whitefly, mole cricket, thrips, spider mites, ants, and seedcorn maggots. Each pest has unique signs of infestation, so early identification is crucial.
2. Each type of pest requires a different treatment strategy. For instance, aphids can be tackled with a soapy ash solution or a wormwood infusion, while cutworms can be trapped with cut plastic bottles. Some pests, like the Colorado potato beetle, can be deterred by planting garlic or marigolds near pepper plants.
3. Besides chemical insecticides, folk remedies, and physical interventions can also effectively control pests. These include keeping the garden tidy, digging trenches filled with substances slugs cannot crawl over, or setting up light or adhesive traps for pests like mole crickets and whiteflies.
4. Regular soil aeration, spraying plants with garlic or soap water, regular weeding, and disinfecting soil and greenhouses in the fall are preventive measures to keep pepper plants free from pests.
5. The extent and duration of the pest treatment for your bell pepper plants depend on the type of pest, the number of insects, and the stage of plant infestation. This highlights the importance of early detection and immediate action in managing pest attacks.