Pests and Diseases
Generally, peppers are problem-free. The same pests and diseases that plague tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants will occasionally attack peppers.
Destructive caterpillars like cutworms, tomato hornworms, and borers are easily controlled with Bacillus thuringensis (BT or Thuricide). Rotenone and pyrethrum will readily handle pepper maggots and weevils, leaf miners, flea beetles, and aphids.
If they appear, disease and insect pests threaten efficient pepper production by lowering yield, reducing fruit quality and making harvests unreliable, but with a few precautions, you can keep your peppers “clean:”
- Select fertile, well drained fields and check annually for pH, nutrients, nematodes, southern stem blight, soil insects and weeds.
- Keep seed and plant lots separate
- Practice sanitation.
- Spray plants for bacterial spot prior to pulling.
- Obtain pest-free plants and transplant on a raised bed after soil temperature exceeds 55°F.
- Spray at first appearance of disease and when insects warrant.
- Use organic pesticides to eliminate common pests.
- Harvest quality fruit, avoid injuries during handling and immediately remove field heat.