Who gnaws pepper leaves with what to treat. Pepper pests - description with photographs and control methods. Chemical pest control

Why do pepper leaves have holes? The answer to this question interests many summer residents who are faced with such a problem. Insect pests prefer to eat the juicy greens of pepper seedlings, sometimes completely destroying the plant and leaving holes of different diameters on the leaves. How to protect pepper and what to treat it with for protection? A description of treatment methods will help you figure out what to do in this case.

Holes on the leaf plate of pepper appear for various reasons. Most often, the problem is associated with the appearance of an insect pest on the site or as a result of a plant disease

Why do holes appear on pepper leaves: what to do and how to treat them?

Holes on the leaf plate of pepper appear for various reasons. Most often, the problem is associated with the appearance of an insect pest on the site or as a result of a plant disease. In other cases, holes in the leaves indicate a violation of the rules of crop care, but this can be corrected. According to reviews from summer residents, it is clear that most often the leaves of peppers are damaged by the following pests:

1. The Colorado potato beetle is the most famous leaf beetle of all insects. The leaves are gnawed willingly and with great speed by the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle. The insect eats the leaf starting from its edge. It is not easy to identify the pest during the day, since in hot weather it hides on the back side of the leaf. On pepper leaves you can manually collect insects. This is the most popular method, preferred by many gardeners. But if we are talking about the infestation of a large number of bushes, then spraying with insecticides, for example Inta Vir, Calypso, Destroy, will help save the pepper from the beetle.
2. Slugs are pests that love to eat tender pepper leaves. The peculiarity is that the slug gnaws out round or oval holes in the center of the leaf. If nothing is done, then after a few days there will be nothing left of the plant except the stem. It is impossible to detect a naked snail during the day. She skillfully hides under stones, boards, and stumps. You can detect slugs in the garden late in the evening or early in the morning. It will be possible if the soil around the pepper is crushed with ash, lime, and ground hot pepper. Summer residents recommend planting peppers away from dense bushes and other slug habitats.
3. The armyworm is known for laying eggs on noble plants, from which voracious caterpillars emerge. During the day they hide in the upper layers of the soil, and at night they come to the surface and gnaw leaf petioles, stems, and some species eat leaves, leaving holes behind. To do this, you need to start with prevention, and inspect the pepper leaves in order to destroy butterfly eggs. Loosening the soil in the garden bed, destroying weeds, and mechanically destroying caterpillars are effective methods of controlling them.

There are holes in the leaves and fruits of pepper: what causes the plant?

Fungal diseases of pepper are often detected after holes appear on the leaves, surrounded by a brown border. The spots do not have a specific shape, are located chaotically, the reverse side of the leaf may have a fluffy coating of different colors. These are all fungal spores. Fungi attack peppers during periods of prolonged rain.

Holes on the leaves may indicate a violation of the rules of crop care

In addition to holes on the leaves, fungal diseases cause the stem and fruit to become covered with spots. As the disease progresses, the pepper fruits at the site where the spot appears begin to rot and disappear. Most often, such manifestations have fungal diseases such as:

• late blight;
• sclerotinia;
• cladosporiosis;
• gray rot.

For this purpose, copper-containing preparations are used, for example 3% copper sulfate. Other effective drugs for the treatment of fungal diseases are the following:

• “Oxychom”;
• "Barrier";
• “Gamair”;
• “Planriz”;
• “Fitosporin”;
• “Baktofit”;
• “Barrier.”

To prevent the appearance of holes on pepper leaves, it is recommended to regularly spray plants with antifungal drugs. In cool, rainy weather, treatment with “Fitosporin” and “Gamair” can be repeated every 7-10 days. In dry weather, it is enough to spray the plantings once every 14-20 days.

If holes appear on the pepper leaves and you don’t know what to do, you need to analyze what work has been done on the site recently. Quite often, such holes arise due to the fault of the summer resident himself, especially an inexperienced one. Spraying pepper with preparations for or protection against pests and diseases can cause burns if the dosage is not followed. Contact with boric acid crystals and potassium permanganate on bell pepper leaves is guaranteed to cause a chemical burn. Holes often form. When starting spraying, you need to carefully study the instructions, follow the dosage and prepare the mixture correctly.

Why do holes appear on pepper leaves, video:

Have you found holes and damage on the leaves of sweet peppers, but don’t know what to do? There can be many reasons, and experienced summer residents who have learned to cope with the problem will help identify the problem. Watch the video, read reviews and find out why holes appear on pepper leaves. Leave comments and share your experience of dealing with holes in leaves.

Pepper is a rather capricious crop that is susceptible to fungal, viral and bacterial infections. Peppers are often attacked by garden pests, and in addition, plants die from improper care and lack of microelements. That is why plants especially need treatment and, not least, foliar feeding.

Causes of diseases

If you notice that your peppers are withering and drying out, pale or brown spots, pimples and holes appear on the leaves, the green parts turn red or yellow, become lemon-colored and turn over - most likely the plant is affected by a disease. The causes of pepper diseases are very diverse and can be divided into several categories:

• fungal;
• viral;
• bacterial;
• non-infectious.

Most often, the cause of crop problems is fungi - their spores are distributed literally everywhere, so they can easily get on a young plant and lead to its damage.

Bacterial and viral problems are associated with pathogenic microorganisms that penetrate the soil and cause the death of the green parts of plants. In addition, they are often transmitted from one bush to another and affect plants both in the greenhouse and in open areas.

Non-infectious causes have other origins:

• unsuitable temperature conditions;
• improper moisture – excessive or, conversely, insufficient watering;
• soil poor in organic and mineral substances;
• improperly applied fertilizer;
• drafts and prolonged exposure to wind;
• temperature changes.

The most common fungal infections include blackleg, late blight, powdery mildew, fusarium wilt, oedema and gray rot also often appear.

The most common bacterial infections are bacterial soft rot, bacterial wilt, black spot and bacterial canker, and verticillium.

Among the viral ones, the most common are cucumber and tobacco mosaic, streak and stolbur.

Late blight

Black spot

Quite often, plant wilting is associated with non-infectious causes - they are caused by errors in care, namely:

• excessive soil moisture– usually caused by overwatering or clogged drainage holes in containers;
• dry air– this applies to plants at the stage of growing seedlings: many make a fairly common mistake and place boxes near the battery, in this case the leaves die and quickly fall off;
• lack of protection against wind and drafts– the plant should be planted near taller crops (for example, corn), which will restrain gusts of wind.

There are other problems that often cause yellowing foliage:

• underdevelopment of roots– the cause of this pathology can be growing seedlings in a small container or improperly carried out picking;
• poor watering– peppers react very sensitively to a lack of moisture; with a lack of water, the leaves very often dry out and fall off.

If there is a lack of certain minerals, the plant may exhibit the following disease symptoms:

• nitrogen– leads to yellowing of leaves and their falling off;
• calcium– causes the appearance of gray-yellow spots;
• potassium- manifests itself in the curling of leaf plates.

By the way, curling, the appearance of holes and deformation of sheets are often signs of an attack by spider mites and other garden pests.

Choosing a remedy

The modern market for products for gardeners and gardeners offers a wide selection of all kinds of drugs that successfully fight many different diseases of peppers and other crops. They may have a specialized, or they may have a very general effect.

For example, “Bactofit” and “Fitosporin” help with black leg and gray rot; “Previkur” has proven itself well in the fight against late blight, and fusarium disappears after treatment with “Glyocladin” or “Trichodermin”.

For all types of fungal infections, you can use copper-based fungicides - copper sulfate, oxychome or Bordeaux mixture.

Folk remedies help a lot. So, to eliminate powdery mildew, experienced gardeners advise spraying the plant with a soap-salt solution, as well as horsetail decoction or whey.

For diseases caused by bacterial lesions, copper-containing compounds, for example, copper oxychloride, are most often used. By the way, these drugs are worth purchasing even if the causes of the disease cannot be determined. However, keep in mind that such products are very toxic and can cause harm not only to pathogens of peppers, but also to people, so when working, you definitely need protective equipment - gloves and, if possible, a respirator.

But viral pathologies cannot be treated; the diseased plant should be uprooted and burned. However, for prevention, we can recommend treating the green parts of the seedlings with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or skim milk.

As a preventive measure, decoctions of various herbs have also proven themselves to be effective: wormwood, onion, tansy, dandelion, and yarrow. It would be a good idea to add plant immunity stimulants to the resulting infusions and decoctions - aloe juice, succinic acid or ready-made formulations such as “Zircon”, “Immunocytophyte” or “Inta-Vir”. Such manipulations give a very good effect: – they destroy all pathogenic microflora, repel unnecessary insects and their larvae, and in addition, stimulate natural immunity.

Many problems can be avoided if you plant peppers with the right neighbors, for example, if you plant peppers and potatoes or tomatoes in close proximity, then most likely you will not be able to avoid “acquaintance” with the Colorado potato beetle. In this case, you should purchase special insecticides, which are updated and improved almost every year.

When attacked by slugs, you can pollinate the leaves with a mixture of tobacco dust and dry wormwood - for these unpleasant mollusks, this combination is very effective, in addition, you can use a decoction of celandine.

When infested by aphids, insecticides should be preferred. The best reviews were won by the drug "Decis", which allows you to get rid of even colonies of aphids, as well as their companions - ants.

Pests such as whiteflies and garden spider mites cause great harm to the green parts of the plant. To get rid of the misfortune, you should spray the peppers with an infusion of green garlic or onion, and for maximum adhesion to the leaf plate, it is recommended to add a little laundry soap to the solution.

Keep in mind that any disease should be treated at the very initial stage, when there are too many pests, it is much more difficult to get rid of them. In addition, at the stage of fruit formation and ripening, the possibility of using insecticides is seriously limited, since they can enter the fruit and deteriorate their nutritional and taste properties.

Peppers respond very well to a variety of foliar feedings. Most often, potassium sulfate, superphosphate and nitrogen-rich urea are used to feed peppers; in addition, experienced summer residents recommend making a nettle infusion.

Plant processing process

Spraying plant leaves can be carried out in two cases - to control pests and as foliar feeding. It has been proven that plants absorb nutrients through leaves and young stems no worse than through roots, and the digestibility of such compounds is quite high. That is why plants can be fertilized and treated by spraying the green parts - stems and leaves.

• excessively increased or decreased soil temperature - in this case, the absorption of nutrients by the roots is problematic;
• too high degree of soil moisture;
• high acidity of the soil - in this case, the plant practically does not absorb phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen and calcium.

And of course, spraying is used to combat diseases that affect the green parts of the crop.

Foliar spraying is widely used by gardeners when stressful situations arise for plants - during temperature fluctuations, replanting, or the risk of developing infections.

Spraying is a fairly popular way of feeding plants, as it promotes:

• growth of deciduous mass;
• active formation of ovaries;
• rapid fruit ripening;
• more complete absorption of all minerals and vitamins.

Keep in mind that for foliar feeding, more concentrated solutions are used than when applying fertilizers to the ground, but try to avoid too high dosages, since in this case it is quite easy to burn the leaf blade.

Regardless of the purpose of spraying - feeding or treatment, treatment should be carried out in the evening, preferably at 18-19 hours, since at this moment there are no longer direct ultraviolet rays, so the plant has time to absorb the applied products. It is advisable to carry out procedures at a temperature no higher than 22 degrees. It has been noticed that in cloudy weather, nutritional and medicinal components are absorbed much more efficiently, but rainy weather is not suitable for processing - drops of water will simply wash the preparations off the surface and the effect of their application will be zero.

Pay special attention to spraying the inside of the sheet - in this place the plates have a highly porous structure, so absorption occurs much faster.

Spraying requires special tools. If you plan to treat single bushes, then a simple spray bottle will be enough, but if large areas need to be treated, then you need to purchase a large, capacious sprayer.

Prevention measures

As they say, a disease is easier to prevent than to treat, and sweet pepper diseases are no exception. The vast majority of lesions of this culture cannot be cured, so maximum measures must be taken to prevent the development of pathology.

To increase the plant’s resistance to crop diseases, they should be sprayed every 1.5-2 weeks with special biological products or decoctions and infusions according to folk recipes. Most gardeners agree that pests can be repelled by spraying the leaves with infusions of strong-smelling plants: wormwood, garlic, onions or marigolds.

In addition, measures related to the treatment of bushes with solutions of potassium permanganate and boric acid are highly effective - such measures will help prevent a lot of problems by protecting the plants from the moment the first sprout appears until the end of the harvest.

For information on what to do if pepper leaves curl, see the following video.

Bell pepper has gained enormous popularity in our country. The vegetable is deservedly recognized as a “champion” in terms of vitamin C content and is useful for strengthening the cardiovascular system and immunity. According to biologists, it is enough to eat one pepper a day to provide a person with the necessary vitamins. Growing a large fruit can be difficult, as it is susceptible to insect attacks. Sweet pepper pests and their control, photos of the most dangerous of them will help gardeners identify the problem in the early stages and successfully cope with it.

We invite you to learn about sweet pepper pests and methods of controlling them.

Pepper pests: photos and their treatment

Pests of bell peppers quite often destroy the plant and the entire crop. The main problem for summer residents when fighting insects is that no one has the desire to spray the plant with chemicals. This is especially true in cases where the fruits have formed and can soon be picked. Insecticides are guaranteed to destroy pests, but there is always a danger that the person himself will suffer.

Experienced vegetable growers try to use biological products or folk remedies to control sweet pepper pests, namely:

Folk remedies are recommended to be used for the prevention and elimination of pests. To achieve the greatest effect, you should alternate means and combine them. It is advisable to repeat the treatment every few days throughout the summer.

Pepper pests: naked slugs, photo

Slugs on sweet peppers can eat holes in the fruits

To combat, you can treat the area where the sweet pepper is planted with wood ash and tobacco dust. If this method is ineffective, freshly slaked lime is used. It is carefully scattered around the perimeter of the site, but avoid getting on the plant itself. You can collect shellfish by hand. They move slowly. Inspecting peppers in the evening, when slugs come out of their hiding places to feed, will help collect individuals and destroy them. Carrying out this procedure daily is the safest.

Pepper pests: spider mites and their control

Spider mite - a dangerous insect that sucks out the nutritious sap of a plant. It lives under leaves, on which light spots appear as a result of numerous bites. Subsequently, the dots darken and the affected area of ​​the leaf dries out. In case of massive infestation, spider mites cause the death of ovaries and fruits. If control measures are not taken, the plant will die.

When infected, the spider mite causes the death of the ovary and fruits of the sweet pepper

Among the folk methods of combating ticks, infusions and decoctions of onions, dandelions, and garlic are effective. Of the potent drugs, it is recommended to spray the plantings with the preparation “Fitoverm”, “Karbofos”, “Aktellik”. Spider mites are a frequent guest of greenhouses and greenhouses. You can exterminate the insect if you destroy all plant debris in the fall and spray the entire structure with bleach.

Aphid- a sap-sucking pest. Despite its tiny size, it can destroy a plant in a matter of days. When attacked by aphids, pepper leaves turn yellow, curl and fall off. The plant is greatly retarded in growth and development, and it does not have the strength to bear fruit. Ants often bring aphids into the area, so you need to fight them too.

In the photo, the aphid that caused the pepper leaves to curl

If there are few aphids on the sweet pepper, it is enough to collect them with your hands and wash the leaf with cold water and laundry soap. Traditional methods use 20 ml of ammonia and 2 tablespoons of laundry soap, diluted in 2 liters of water. Potent drugs should be used during the growing season. Suitable preparations for processing are “Fury”, “Fufanon”, “Aktellik”.

Pepper pests: whitefly and wireworm

Whitefly- a moth of small size, pleasant appearance and is often confused with an ordinary moth. The whitefly and its offspring feed on the sap of peppers. As a result of bites, viruses, bacteria, fungi, and cause various pepper diseases quite often penetrate into the resulting wound. The surface of the leaf is covered with sticky whitefly enzymes. At first the leaf is white and then turns black. This occurs as a consequence of the addition of a fungal infection. not complicated and effective.

In the photo there is a wireworm

Wireworm– brown click beetle larvae. The worm is hard and quite voracious. It lives in the soil at a depth of up to 10 cm and actively eats the roots of sweet peppers. As a result, the plant does not receive enough nutrients and is stunted in growth. It is difficult to fight wireworms and you need to start fighting even before planting pepper seedlings. Vegetable traps are buried in the area to a depth of about 10 cm. These can be pieces of carrots or potatoes. After a few days, the trap is dug out and the wireworms, which have begun to eat the root crop, are destroyed.

Pepper pests: armyworm, thrips

The photo shows the larvae of the moth moth

Scoop- a butterfly that leads a nocturnal lifestyle. For pepper, the danger is represented by its gray-green larvae with ribs along the entire length of the body. They actively eat the above-ground parts of the plant at night. The cutworm butterfly is very prolific and one individual lays about a thousand eggs at a time, from which caterpillars hatch in June. Measures to combat the cutworm on pepper come down to manual collection of pests and catching the cutworm with bait. Fermenting molasses diluted with water is used as a trap. The smell of molasses attracts the butterfly and it drowns in the water with it.

Thrips- a small oblong insect that sucks the juice of peppers, located on the bottom of the leaf. This leads to leaf curling, drying out, and discoloration. Thrips are carriers of viruses that cause and cannot be treated, so the plant dies.

Thrips are carriers of viruses that cause pretz disease.

Pepper pests: chafer larvae

May beetle larvae – voracious pests that cause significant damage to garden crops, including sweet peppers. These white larvae with a black head and 6 legs willingly gnaw the roots of the plant, as a result of which the seedlings wither, dry out, and disappear. The larvae themselves live deep in the soil, often descending 70 cm deep. This makes it much more difficult to fight them.

The photo shows a May beetle larva

Female cockchafers are fertile and lay about 70 eggs at a time. If you catch beetles and destroy them, the insect population will gradually decrease. For fishing, light and glue traps are used, which are made by hand. Regular fly traps will also work. It is worth collecting the larvae when digging deep into the soil, as they are white and clearly visible on the surface. Adding fresh rather than rotted manure is a big mistake. There are a huge number of cockchafer larvae in it and it will be difficult to remove them later.

Among the effective chemicals used are the preparation “Antikhrushch” or “Rembek”, which are applied to the soil according to the instructions. Before planting, the roots of seedlings can be soaked in solutions of Prestige and Aktara preparations. The duration of soaking is from 3 to 8 hours. According to the observations of farmers, beetle larvae do not like nitrogenous fertilizers, which, following the dosage, are applied to the soil. But you shouldn't abuse them.

Video about sweet pepper pests and their control:

Pepper is a vegetable susceptible to various types of diseases. Often, signs of disease are visible on the leaves of the vegetable. If you find small holes on the organs of a plant, then know that they were not caused by disease.

Detailed information about pepper is given in the video.

Aphids reproduce very quickly, which makes it difficult to control them in a greenhouse. To completely remove insects, you also need to defeat ants, because these pests live in close relationships. What exactly needs to be done to get rid of insects forever?

There are several ways to combat aphids:

There are some other methods of preventing and controlling slugs:

Usually the Colorado potato beetle eats potatoes, but if it does not grow in your greenhouse, pepper will satisfy the pest. “Sieves” on pepper leaves appear both from adult individuals and from larvae, the individual of which also actively eats them.

There are a number of other ways to destroy the pest:

1. As in the fight against the beetle that eats potatoes, you can collect the colorados by hand and then burn them;
2. “Aromatic” bush beans can be planted next to the plants;
3. Traps made from tomato, eggplant, and potato leaves help against beetles that eat pepper leaves.

The vegetable has many other enemies that eat the leaves. If you “met” them, you can simply defeat them with the help of insecticides.

In this video, gardeners tell you how to prevent pepper diseases and pest attacks.

Kira Stoletova

When holes appear on almost ripened fruits or only veins remain from the leaves, a caterpillar has appeared in the pepper in the garden bed or in the greenhouse. You need to get rid of it as soon as possible before the plants receive severe damage.