Why Are There Holes in My Pepper Leaves?

Holes in pepper leaves mean something is chewing your plant, and the size, shape and timing of the damage point to the culprit. Peppers are not as pest-magnet as some crops, but several common chewers will nibble them, and young plants are the most vulnerable. Identify yours and the fix is usually quick. Let me show you how to read the damage.

Slugs and snails

If the holes are large and ragged, mostly on lower leaves and young plants, and you find silvery slime trails on the leaves or soil in the morning, slugs and snails are feeding at night. They are especially destructive to pepper seedlings, which they can strip overnight. Hunt them after dark with a torch and hand-pick, set beer traps, clear damp hiding places near the stems, and ring vulnerable plants with a gritty barrier they dislike crossing.

Caterpillars

Larger, irregular holes and chewed leaf edges, often with dark droppings on the leaves below, point to caterpillars. Several species feed on pepper foliage, and some — like certain fruitworms and the pepper maggot in some regions — will also bore into the fruit. Hand-pick the caterpillars you find, using the droppings to locate them, and treat with Bt, a natural bacterial caterpillar control that is harmless to other creatures, for heavier infestations.

Beetles and flea beetles

If the leaves are peppered with many tiny round holes, as if hit by miniature buckshot, that is flea beetles — small beetles that jump when disturbed and do the most harm to young plants and seedlings. Mature peppers usually outgrow the damage, but seedlings can be set back badly. Protect young plants with floating row cover until established, keep them growing strongly, and use sticky traps or a light treatment if numbers are high. Larger beetles can also chew bigger holes.

Earwigs and night feeders

Earwigs feed at night and chew small, ragged holes in pepper leaves and sometimes the fruit; you will often find them hiding in tight, dark crevices by day. A rolled-up damp newspaper or a small tube left out overnight makes a handy trap to catch and remove them. If the other suspects do not fit and damage appears overnight, earwigs are worth checking for with an after-dark torch inspection.

Match the damage to the pest

Put it together: large ragged holes with slime trails, worse after rain, equals slugs and snails — hunt at night and set barriers; large holes with droppings equals caterpillars — hand-pick or use Bt; many tiny shotholes on young plants equals flea beetles — cover and protect seedlings; small ragged holes appearing overnight with no slime equals earwigs — trap them. Identify the specific pest, protect young plants especially, and your peppers will keep their leaves working to ripen the crop.