If you grow peppers from transplants, especially in high tunnels or greenhouses, scout starting now for pepper weevil — a pest you’ve probably never seen, let alone heard of. This weevil is tiny, just 1/8 inch long, but it packs a punch disproportionate to its size. In fact, its action threshold is exactly ONE — one adult — on pepper crops in the Southeast, where this pest routinely wreaks havoc.
True, it’s unlikely to infest peppers in New York, so why worry? Well, for the past decade this weevil has been hitchhiking from points south to south Jersey, most likely on transplants destined for vegetable farms. Where it touches down, devastated pepper crops often follow. And if it happens there, it could happen here.
With sweet, bell, and hot peppers increasingly popular as high-tunnel crops, it makes sense (and maybe ¢) to learn more about this pest.