..lauren..
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bell pepper plant leaves

My bell pepper plants were fine a few weeks ago, but these days, their leaves are suddenly starting to get eaten by something! The next day, not only are the leaves gone, some of the bell peppers are eaten too! I'm not sure if they're spiders because I see a lot of spider webs on my plants and I try to destroy the webs. My plant has gotten so much damage that I don't think it will even live for another few weeks. I don't think that slugs are eating the leaves because I've never seen them on my plants. Maybe the birds are eating my bell peppers? My poor plant is getting leave-less! -helpsos-
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Last edited by ..lauren.. on Tue Jul 31, 2018 1:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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applestar
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Almost definitely hornworm. Look closely — they are very well comouflaged. Look for bunch of grass/poop and look at branch/leaf above ithem.

DEFINITELY NOT the spiders. They are protecting your plant from other pests like whiteflies, aphids, fruit flies, peppermaggot flies. Don’t kill them.

..lauren..
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I don't think they are hornworms because there are no droppings..

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applestar
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Ok I was looking at the photo, and the leaves look more severely bitten off than possibly caterpillars, though it is still a possibility— maybe armyworms. They could be the source of the webbing too and not spiders.

Hornworms, armyworms, and slugs all feed during the night. Armyworms pass through. Another night time feeder is climbing cutworm.

But if larger something, could be mice or rats. What other wildlife are possible where you are? Birds are certainly posssible (definitely chickens and ducks). When I had peppers growing inside for the winter, my cats kept chewing up the sweet pepper leaves. (abut they wouldn’t eat the fruit)

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applestar
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You could try moving the container?

...your plant isnt that big yet I think I would harvest that green pepper — it’s developed enough to use — to reduce the load on the plant and let it recover from the severe leaf loss. Otherwise, it just might sacrifice itself trying to mature the fruit. Without the fruit, it will go back to growing leaves and trying to bloom.

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rainbowgardener
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Or something like a ground hog? They tend to chew all the leaves off and just leaves stem stubs...

..lauren..
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I just checked my plants and there are no slugs are worms on it

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applestar
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That’s good. Maybe those pests could be removed from the suspect list then?

Any thoughts about possible larger munching culprits?
Do you know for sure if they came during the night or during the daylight hours?

In the photo it looks like the container is on the ground. Is it possible to put it on a bench or a table? That would immediately put it out of reach of rabbits.



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