I HATE TEXAS - pepper weevils/maggots!!!!

[The Zen Master]

Cedar Creek, TX
Noticed Carolina Reaper with hole in it - took it off opened it up little black maggot looking things inside. I did not like what I read about them elsewhere... Now what do I do????

This has to be the most difficult place to grow anything of any place I have ever lived!!!! WHY AREN'T THERE WARNINGS ON THE PLANT LABELS WHEN YOU BUY THEM?????

Sorry for the freak-out but - geez this IS the hardest place I have ever tried to grow stuff!!

 

[DirtMechanic]

Sounds like it is easy to grow bugs. I have similiar issues.

 

[The Zen Master]

Sounds like it is easy to grow bugs. I have similiar issues.

Are my peppers doomed?

It may have been you that replied to an earlier pepper post of mine where the plants got hit with RoundUp and I cut them back? You should see how nice they are doing! No fruit yet, but the plants look like great pepper bushes!

Should I buy 20-gallons of Neem oil to get through the summer?

 

[The Zen Master]

Just spoke to my aunt a few miles over - total organic folks. Started a large raised garden a few years back and quote "just gave up because it was too much trouble to get anything to grow here." The only thing she grows now is Rosemary because it's the only thing that grows and grows without being attacked by some vicious insect or disease...

Wish I consulted her before I started all this...

 

[DirtMechanic]

Glad it worked out!

Spinosad and bT and pyrethrin are three items you need in your arsenal. A 4th that is not really a insecticide and is really a non reactive carrier and sticker, is called a non ionic adjuvant. I use mythelated seed oil in a brand called duo stick. The idea is to not hurt the impact of any chemistry with soaps , detergents etc before the products even hit the plant.

And neem oil too, and thyme oil for fungi imo.

 

[The Zen Master]

Doesn't sound like products I might get at Lowe's?...

I am a total "casual" gardener - in the past, in AZ, I never had anything close to the problems I've experienced here - grew lots of tomatoes, peppers, basil - even had a small navel orange tree - all in containers (I miss the aroma of those orange blooms...) Worst that ever happened was aphids on a tomato - sprayed it with something organic and they were gone!

 

[DirtMechanic]

Actually it is at lowes. But not necessarily the seed oil. Bonide, Monterey are brands carried by Home Depot and Lowes.

 

[The Zen Master]

Thanks very much!

If anyone has a specific brand or product they could recommend, that would be awesome - I do not know half way near enough about all of this and I want the problem solved as fast as humanly possible. I cannot become a garden PhD overnight.

Someone elsewhere mentioned a very effective "blue" insecticidal product - did not sound organic? Anyone know what that might be?

I don't really care about organic, frankly. If I could still buy DDT, I would.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Well no. But, blue is often copper related, and would be more of an antifungal.

Whats fun about concoctions like spinosad and bT is that they are not just organic, but actually biological warfare. We just compost the bodies.

 

[The Zen Master]

Thanks, I will phone Bonide and Monterey tomorrow and describe the problem and see what they say; this way I don't have to stay up all night reading.

 

[TomatoNut]

Ever try Sevin-Dust?

 

[Chuck]

Some years no matter what you do it turns out wrong. In reality there isn't much you can do about pepper maggots. Thankfully the pepper maggot fly is only around a short while and only ruins a few peppers.. That's what's fun about gardening in Texas. If it can happen it will and at the worst time.

Thanks, I will phone Bonide and Monterey tomorrow and describe the problem and see what they say; this way I don't have to stay up all night reading.

Save your phone money. No chemical or organic pesticide will control the pepper maggot. The Pepper Maggot Fly is kind of like the moth that causes the leaf miner caterpillar. She lands, lays an egg, the egg hatches and the caterpillar digs into the leaf where nothing, chemical or otherwise can get to it. The Pepper Maggot Fly is slightly different. She lands and instead of just laying her egg she inserts the egg under the skin of the pepper where nothing, chemical or otherwise can get to it. Egg hatches, maggot is already inside the pepper safe as a bug in a rug. Then when the pepper is destroyed and falls to the ground the maggot buries into the soil and the next year the cycle starts over again. Just basic garden techniques can greatly cut the risk of ever meeting this fly. Just clean up regularly.

 

[Chuck]

Are my peppers doomed?

It may have been you that replied to an earlier pepper post of mine where the plants got hit with RoundUp and I cut them back? You should see how nice they are doing! No fruit yet, but the plants look like great pepper bushes!

Should I buy 20-gallons of Neem oil to get through the summer?

You might loose a couple of peppers off of each plant, maybe. Don't worry, you will still have a crop. Oh, Neem won't help.

 

[The Zen Master]

Thank you, Chuck.

[Edit] Would you mind being "on call" 24-7? Seeing those creepy things inside the pepper was like a sci-fi movie inside a nightmare. Stunning that none of what I was able to read about them was as clear and concise as your post. Thank you very much.

PS. I just happen to have a shaker of Sevin dust that I have not used because, I can't figure out if it actually safe to - the text on the fricken can is so small its hard to read...

 

[DirtMechanic]

@Chuck hit on a reason I like thyme oil. It smells, and strongly. I learned that smells attract some bugs to certain plants and not others, and that one level of defense is the invisibility cloak of scent.