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Hello..am new to this forum and not a garden person really... I have been growing habaneros lately and they turn out fine.. Got a decent harvest but since then, some invisible bugs are eating those leaves. there are no snails but I got pictures of the bugs.. put a leaf under the microscope but cant identify them. I would be grateful if any member can help me with those and any tips for killing them (I used oil and soap but that didnt help)

thank you very much

here are some pics

Hello..am new to this forum and not a garden person really... I have been growing habaneros lately and they turn out fine.. Got a decent harvest but since then, some invisible bugs are eating those leaves. there are no snails but I got pictures of the bugs.. put a leaf under the microscope but cant identify them. I would be grateful if any member can help me with those and any tips for killing them (I used oil and soap but that didnt help)

thank you very much

here are some pics

These might be a bug that we have never seen, given your location. The enlarged photo looks like some sort of scale. I get black aphids on my peppers and okra. imafan56 might know something similar, being in Hawaii.

I does look like a scale. There looks to be some nymphs around too. It could be a brown scale or aphid. I did not see legs on them. but aphids usually have the conicle pointy tip on their rear end so I am thinking soft brown scale. I don't usually see these on peppers much.
The control for scale is similar to aphids except, when scales are dead they stay attached. so
Pick of the most infested leaves
If your plant is small use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol or a sponge and wipe them off. They should scrape off with a thumbnail
Put out ant bait and control the ants.
Make sure the plants are being fed and watered and they have enough growing room especially if they are in a pot, you may have to pot up. Bugs target distressed plants.

https://extension.missouri.edu/p/g7274

They are scale insects Shaahir,
Scrape them off if you can.
If there's too many , then spray with a fatty acid spray.
They are difficult to remove as they put out a waxy coating that protects them against chemical sprays.....add a drop of liquid soap to any spray applied as this helps to break down the wax.

Hello good people. Thank you for your insight into the subject. Ive done some research about scales and I found some very interesting results.
Those are probably eggs from the Citrus Blackfly. Ive done the "watch-person-with-a-torch" at night and found these little flies bugging around. killed the little b's and cleaned the infected leaves.
While the oil-soap spray is effective against white mildew, the method isn't as successful against those black eggs from underside of my leaves.
I have also put some double sided tape around some branches in the hope to catch some parasites.

If it helps, I've also noticed that the oil-soap spray hinders the growth of leaves. (from biology, oil may block the stomata to undergo proper gaseous exchange, well this is my 2-cent interpretation of why my plant isn't growing much)

I will keep you updated and once more I thank you very much for you replies

Regards
Shaahir

imafan26 wrote:I does look like a scale. There looks to be some nymphs around too. It could be a brown scale or aphid. I did not see legs on them. but aphids usually have the conicle pointy tip on their rear end so I am thinking soft brown scale. I don't usually see these on peppers much.
The control for scale is similar to aphids except, when scales are dead they stay attached. so
Pick of the most infested leaves
If your plant is small use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol or a sponge and wipe them off. They should scrape off with a thumbnail
Put out ant bait and control the ants.
Make sure the plants are being fed and watered and they have enough growing room especially if they are in a pot, you may have to pot up. Bugs target distressed plants.

https://extension.missouri.edu/p/g7274

Cheers, the website provided is very informative but it says that scales rarely attack vegetable plants. well maybe my plants are kind of an exception. haha. Am afraid to use the alcohol method though, it might damage the cell wall of the leaves. Have you had luck with alcohol? Due to the unavailability of space, my plants are in flower pots and I use the orchid liquid fertiliser to fertilise the pepper plants. I think it compose of KNO or something. There are no ants though, had a couple of snails but removed them, buggers were eating the leaves.
Thank you

JONA wrote:They are scale insects Shaahir,
Scrape them off if you can.
If there's too many , then spray with a fatty acid spray.
They are difficult to remove as they put out a waxy coating that protects them against chemical sprays.....add a drop of liquid soap to any spray applied as this helps to break down the wax.

Fortunately, I removed those and my plants are, at this moment, scale-free..lol
Thank you