Bell peppers are being attacked!

[diamond808]

I brought my bell pepper plant indoors for the winter and there are holes taking over my leaves. LOL what could be attacking my plant ? it is in our home and I don't see any bugs any where some one help!

[applestar]

Check under the containers for slugs. They often hide in drain holes and are missed during pre-move in inspection. You could also check the plants at night in the dark with a flashlight to see what is coming out at night to feed. It could be some kind of a caterpillar as well.

[TalSlavinski]

Spray it with Malathion insecticide. It has low human toxicity and safe also for your animals but could help you eradicate a variety of leaf-chewing insects

[rainbowgardener]

I'm sorry, but I think that is extremely bad advice, especially for an INDOOR plant as this one is specified. Malathion is an organophosphate, a class of insecticides that were originally developed as neurotoxins for chemical warfare. Yes, it has relatively low human toxicity and has been used for wide scale spraying. However, here's what wiki has to say:

Malathion itself is of low toxicity; however, absorption or ingestion into the human body readily results in its metabolism to malaoxon, which is substantially more toxic.[16] In studies of the effects of long-term exposure to oral ingestion of malaoxon in rats, malaoxon has been shown to be 61 times more toxic than malathion.[16] ... If malathion is used in an indoor, or other poorly ventilated environment, it can seriously poison the occupants living or working in this environment. in jurisdictions which spray malathion for pest control, it is often recommended to keep windows closed and air conditioners turned off while spraying is taking place, in an attempt to minimize entry of malathion into the closed environment of residential homes.

Besides some risk to humans, especially in enclosed spaces: Malathion is slightly toxic to mammals, moderately toxic to birds, and highly toxic to aquatic organisms, both freshwater and estuarine, as well as bees (#EPA 2006, #PPDB 2011). http://www.toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Malathion Given the current crisis in honeybees, it is well to avoid use of products that are toxic to them.

And note that the pest in this case is most likely slugs and they are impervious to insecticides. So you would be taking all these risks and accomplishing nothing, if in fact it is slugs chewing your peppers. Slugs are in fact the only things that ever bother my pepper plants.

[imafan26]

It sounds like slugs. They like to hide in the pots during the day and come out at night to do their damage. At night, after the lights have been out a couple of hours check the plants.

Alternatively, gently pull the peppers out of the pots and check the roots. Slugs like roots too. Sometimes they will be on the bottom or on the side of the root ball.

You can try baiting them with sluggo. It is iron phosphate. I usually put the bait in a can turned on its' side between the plants where it is dark and moist.

[Aida]

Try to spread eggshells around the base of the plant, and in case it isn't slugs, spraying the plant would help. Of course, use an organic, nonharmful spray. I find that collecting garlic and onion skins, then pouring some boiling water on them and letting that soak, before spraying my plants solves all pest problems. It is cheap and you can do it at home, recycling waste. Also, there is absolutely no risk with that-- no one will get sick from ingesting or breathing in onion juice. ;c

[imafan26]

If you choose to do any spraying, I'd at least wait for a decent day and do it outside. I would not want to spray anything indoors.