How to Manage Pests

Pepper weevil—Anthonomus aenotinctus

Adult pepper weevils are dark, robust snout beetles 0.13 inch long, with beaks longer than their head and thorax. Larvae are less than 1/4 inch long, white, legless, and found inside fruit. Pupae, also found in fruit, are white to light brown.

Damage

Buds or fruits turn yellow. Buds or young pods may drop from the plant. The remaining pods may become misshapen and develop yellow or red blotches. The pods are marred by holes.

Solutions

Destroying pepper plants as soon as the harvest is over should reduce weevil problems the following year. Destroy nightshade plants, an alternative host, wherever they occur.

Adult pepper weevil

Pepper weevil larva feeding in a pepper pod