Home and Landscape

Pepper Weevil

  • Anthonomus eugenii
Updated: 04/2025

Identification

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.

Adult pepper weevil feeding on a flower bud.; Florida Credit: Esteban R. Leyva
Adult pepper weevil. Credit: Esteban R. Leyva

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.

Pepper weevil grubs are off-white with a brown head and feed in the core of pepper pod.; California Credit: Richard F. Smith
Pepper weevil larva feeding in a pepper fruit. Credit: Richard F. Smith

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.

The pesticide information on this page may become out of date as products and active ingredients change or become unavailable. No endorsements of named products are intended, nor is criticism implied of products not mentioned.