What are these under my pepper leaves?

s1rGr1nG0 4/26/2014, 12:23 pm

So far my garden is looking fan-tab-u-lous! We are starting to see the beginnings of some tomatoes on our cherry, steak sandwich, brandywine, cherokee purple, and purple tomatillos. The excitement is running VERY HIGH around here in hopes of a good harvest. I'm checking the garden every day, (several times a day when I can), in attempts to find any problems before they become big problems. I've killed a few caterpillars that were creeping around on our lettuce/spinach bed.
However, I have noticed some small holes in the leaves of a few of our pepper plants. I've checked at night and early morning but could never catch anyone in the act. Today I was looking around and noticed these on the undersides of several pepper plant leaves. I'm assuming they aren't good for the plants. I'm considering getting some lady bugs to release in the garden to see how they work out before moving on to some type of organic pesticide.
What are they?

What are these under my pepper leaves? Bugs_zps5e1419ce

What are these under my pepper leaves? Bugs_zps5e1419ce

**camprn** 4/26/2014, 1:05 pm

My guess is aphids. I would spray with insecticidal soap.

boffer 4/26/2014, 1:06 pm

Those are aphids, and they love my pepper plants more than anything else.

If the infestation isn't too bad, daily monitoring and squishing them can keep them in check.

Spraying the plants with water to wash them away can help.

I've got them real bad this year for the first time, and I'm trying a commercial spray called Safer that uses fatty acids. It seems to last about a week, and it doesn't harm my seedlings.

**camprn** 4/26/2014, 1:08 pm

boffer wrote:Those are aphids, and they love my pepper plants more than anything else.

If the infestation isn't too bad, daily monitoring and squishing them can keep them in check.

Spraying the plants with water to wash them away can help.

I've got them real bad this year for the first time, and I'm trying a commercial spray called Safer that uses fatty acids. It seems to last about a week, and it doesn't harm my seedlings.

+1

CapeCoddess 4/26/2014, 1:50 pm

yep, I'm with the aphids school of thought.

But what the heck is this? Edema? What are these under my pepper leaves? Img_2066

**camprn** 4/26/2014, 3:07 pm

CC have you had an insect infestation? Are the leaves puckered or swollen?

CapeCoddess 4/26/2014, 3:21 pm

camprn wrote:CC have you had an insect infestation? Are the leaves puckered or swollen?

Nope, no insects yet, thankfully. The bumps are kind of like blisters...with some crystals here & there. The crystals scrape off. The bumps do not. Two plants have it and each plant is in a separate box from the other plant. None of the affected plants box mates have it. What are these under my pepper leaves? Img_2068

What are these under my pepper leaves? Img_2068

**camprn** 4/26/2014, 4:04 pm

what kind of plants are they?

CapeCoddess 4/26/2014, 4:11 pm

both are pepper plants. 1 is red bulls horn, the other is banana.

**camprn** 4/26/2014, 4:17 pm

Send the photo to the extension service. I don't like the look of those.

s1rGr1nG0 4/26/2014, 9:32 pm

Thanks for the replies everyone. I spent about 30 minutes going from plant to plant inspecting them and squishing any aphids I found. Some plants had none and some had just a few on each leaf. I wouldn't say "infestation" at this point so hopefully by bug killing will keep them in check. I do have some pesticidal oil I bought "just in case".

**camprn** 4/26/2014, 9:43 pm

s1rGr1nG0 wrote:Thanks for the replies everyone. I spent about 30 minutes going from plant to plant inspecting them and squishing any aphids I found. Some plants had none and some had just a few on each leaf. I wouldn't say "infestation" at this point so hopefully by bug killing will keep them in check. I do have some pesticidal oil I bought "just in case".

The insecticidal soap spray works very well on aphids. No need to bring out the big guns, LOL.
http://plantcaretoday.com/homemade-insecticidal-soap-recipe.html#

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