I have grown container garden peppers for a few years, but I am not sure I have ever seen pests so early. These appear to be tiny eggs, followed by tinier bugs. They seem to flood the plant overnight, even if I manually squish them or remove the affected leaves. They also seem to prefer new leaves.
The eggs look like seseme seeds almost.
I went out late with a flashlight and found a small narrow grey moth on a leaf, which is one possible source, but other than that I have no idea.
If I recall correctly this is a serrano plant, but they seem to lay eggs on the new leaves of all pepper varieties in the container.
In attempting to research this I saw something similar with the common suggestion of aphids. I don’t know if these are aphid eggs or what. Things I have read but don’t know how true they are regarding aphids:
* Aphids won’t really hurt the pepper, they just like small plants (I’m not convinced this is true since they are attacking the largest plant and seem to be rapidly covering the plants).
* They can just be treated by spraying water. (doesn’t seem to affect the eggs whatsoever…or do I have to wait and spray little bugs instead?)
* They can be treated by diatomaceous earth which will “dry the plant out” and kill them (haven’t tried, but I don’t know how true it is that it would dry the plant out?).
* They can be treated by manually squishing them (I’ve done this but I’m afraid I’m damaging / removing the new leaves, and they seem to be added far faster than I can remove them).
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aphids
I have grown container garden peppers for a few years, but I am not sure I have ever seen pests so early. These appear to be tiny eggs, followed by tinier bugs. They seem to flood the plant overnight, even if I manually squish them or remove the affected leaves. They also seem to prefer new leaves.
The eggs look like seseme seeds almost.
I went out late with a flashlight and found a small narrow grey moth on a leaf, which is one possible source, but other than that I have no idea.
If I recall correctly this is a serrano plant, but they seem to lay eggs on the new leaves of all pepper varieties in the container.
In attempting to research this I saw something similar with the common suggestion of aphids. I don’t know if these are aphid eggs or what. Things I have read but don’t know how true they are regarding aphids:
* Aphids won’t really hurt the pepper, they just like small plants (I’m not convinced this is true since they are attacking the largest plant and seem to be rapidly covering the plants).
* They can just be treated by spraying water. (doesn’t seem to affect the eggs whatsoever…or do I have to wait and spray little bugs instead?)
* They can be treated by diatomaceous earth which will “dry the plant out” and kill them (haven’t tried, but I don’t know how true it is that it would dry the plant out?).
* They can be treated by manually squishing them (I’ve done this but I’m afraid I’m damaging / removing the new leaves, and they seem to be added far faster than I can remove them).
Any wisdom is welcome.