Do you have fly paper/fly traps/yellow fly traps all over the place? thats about the only thing that will get rid of the flies that ultimately cause the maggots.

I have a venus fly trap LOL... I don't think it's very effective. I'll try a bunch of fly tape. I'm just concerned that it might attract more. Would you recommend placing the fly tape near the peppers or opposite side of yard?

Hi bmelz, that's terrible, I am sorry! I have never heard of pepper maggots. One note about the fly tape, don't put it directly above your peppers, in the heat the goop can drip off and make a mess. I don't have maggots but we certainly have tons of regular flies here.

Also do you recall you sent me seeds this year? Just wanted to let you know that the viet peppers had great germination and are gorgeous huge plants, but the peppers are very slow growing. I am excited to get some ripe ones. Also the cayenne seeds I only got one to sprout but the plant is gorgeous and loaded with massive peppers... all still green. Very healthy. Thanks again, I will post pics as they ripen.

Sorry to hijack!

Fly paper outdoors doesn't seem like an effective solution.

Throw some tulle over your plants and anchor it down well to the soil. If the fly can't get to your plants to lay eggs then you won't have any maggots in your peppers.

Rodney

that's a good idea.. Not sure why I hadn't though tof that.

I'll probably pull all the existing fruit off, hopefully we have a late season so I can get a good enough harvest.

thanks for the suggestions.

@hobby. I'm glad some of the seeds turned out. I only have one of the viet peppers as well and it only has one blossom right now. By far my slowest growing pepper plant. I've always had bad luck with germinating those cayennes, but they are a great producer and great tasting pepper. one of my favs.

That sounds like a lot of tule fabric. How many plants are we talking about?

@esox about 20 plants.

Wow peps your story is just like mine.. two seasons ago I has my cayennes hanging to dry out and i saw some maggots falling from them but at that time I thought that maybe it was just the humidity causing them to rot...

Im constantly seeing the pepper maggot fly on peppers, like you said, not much I can do at this point.

Think I might just pull all the peppers off and hope for a late season.

How are you making out this year? Have you been battling the pests?

The first sign for me was the caps yellowing on the jalapenos.. and then the brown rotting. I thought maybe it was sunscald at first. When I brought in the cayennes I "thought" were ok and strung them up, you could actually see the string twirling from the maggots moving around inside. My wife swears she could hear them chewing inside, but that's a bit much.

I moved last year, but i did bring infected plants with me in pots. So I was/am worried some maggots got in the ground here to re-emerge this year. As of last August 3 I was already deep into this problem, and no signs of it yet this year. We have a terrible drought and the plants are behind, so maybe that's why.

I am keeping fingers crossed that they dont come back, if they do, i will probably hire a professional next July to apply the orthene. If not, it will keep happening again and again.

I had a hole in a bell pepper several years back. I think I remember some kind of worm in it when I finally opened it up, but it grew fine with this hole for a long time. I didn't see it on any other peppers.

Does that look like pepper maggots.

What's the scientific or common name of this ADULT fly?

If there was no other obvious sign of decay, than it probably was not a pepper maggot. Also the hole is awfully large.

The scientific name is Zonosemata Electa - a fruitfly.

Here is a good link with info on the pepper fly maggot

http://ipm.uconn.edu/documents/raw2/Pepper%20Maggot/Pepper%20Maggot.php?aid=57

The way I would handle this pest is to destroy its lifecycle by killing the larvae in the soil. I would release nematodes. They will destroy any larvae in the ground so the pepper fly maggot and any beetle larvae especially Japanese beetle larvae will get eaten up.

hey Esox, I think that hole is a bit too big for a pepper maggot/fly most likely something else.

Thanks everyone for all the advice. I think this is what I'm going to do by this weekend.

- pick all existing pepper fruit (sting mark or not) discard all

- purchase nematodes and distribute liberally

- cull most of my pepper plants

- throw tule fabric around the few remaining plants so that I might have a small harvest late this year fall.

- roto-till my garden in late fall / early winter

- roto-till my garden in late winter on a day that everything almost melts but will surely freeze again (sometimes we get a melt around late Feb)

- early spring till garden

- purchase and spread nematodes prior to planting seedlings.

It sounds like a lot of work, but I'm hoping that will take care of my problem once and for all. This is now my third summer in my house and I've yet to produce a single healthy bell pepper plant. My jals have been getting progressively worse year by year and I've even noticed a few Scotch Bonnet infestations this year. interestingly enough though, they do avoid my super-hots.

Sounds like a good plan, but you may want to hold off on the nematodes until the spring...they really don't like warm temps so they may not survive. They also require that the soil be moist for a full 2 weeks after releasing.

You may also look into a fungal insecticide called Botanigard or Mycotrol. I'm using it off label at the moment for a pest called the Tomato Suck Bug, which has been attacking my tomato and pepper plants for 15 years. It's working with great success. It's also effective on other sucking pests such as whitefly, aphids, and psyllids. And even pepper weevils. There's also research being done on it to eradicate even bedbugs! Good stuff!

Contact Bioworks Inc. and/or Arbico Organics. They might have a biocontrol that might be even more effective than nematodes. (Arbico carries nematodes).

Kevin

Here what an infested jalapeño looks like.

Here's a pic of a maggot

There's a pic of one of the flies in my chocolate SBs. :(

Yeah. I get that on a few pods every year, but not enough to warrant any concern. I think mine is from weevils, though. I don't think the maggot is a problem out here in the west.

Do you practice any form of crop rotation? Or is that just not feasible? If not, perhaps next year you could grow all your peppers in containers and solarize the soil --research it.

Kevin

Thanks Kev for your previous advice as well.

I have two small gardens ~ 15' X 15'. I do rotate crops within them and add some triple mix every year. I'll definitely look into containers and solarizing the soil. I'm hoping that my above plan will cure the problem. If I still have the problem next year, I might just go the following year without any peppers or move them to the front yard. It's just such a pain since I start my garden in February (indoors) and don't realize I have a problem until July.

Yep - telltale yellow cap on the jalepeno. I know it well. So upsetting.