The 16 entries in Laisha's encyclopedia that attack Chilli & sweet pepper, grouped by type. Each page covers identification, life cycle, the conditions that favour it, action thresholds and integrated management.

Growing Chilli & sweet pepper? The free Chilli & sweet pepper grow guide covers the crop from sowing to harvest.

Insect pests

• Cotton aphid (melon aphid)Aphis gossypiiInsect · A small aphid, from pale yellow to almost black, that forms dense colonies under the leaves of cotton,…
• Green peach aphidMyzus persicaeInsect · A small, soft-bodied aphid found on hundreds of crops worldwide. Colonies curl leaves and leave sticky…
• Oriental fruit flyBactrocera dorsalisInsect · A fruit fly whose females lay eggs under the skin of ripening mango, guava, papaya, citrus and hundreds of…
• Silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia whitefly)Bemisia tabaciInsect · A tiny white sap-sucking insect that sits on the undersides of leaves of cotton, vegetables, cassava and…
• Tobacco cutworm (Asian armyworm)Spodoptera lituraInsect · A moth whose caterpillars hatch in clusters, skeletonise leaves together and then spread out to devour…
• Western flower thripsFrankliniella occidentalisInsect · A thrips barely visible to the eye that lives in flowers and young leaves of vegetables, fruit and…

Mites

• Two-spotted spider mite (red spider mite)Tetranychus urticaeMite · A mite smaller than a pinhead that sucks the contents of leaf cells, leaving pale speckles, bronzed leaves…

Nematodes

• Root-knot nematodesMeloidogyne incognitaNematode · Root-knot nematodes are microscopic worms that enter roots and turn them into swollen, knotted galls, so…

Fungal diseases

• Anthracnose of chilli (fruit rot and dieback)Colletotrichum scovillei and Colletotrichum truncatumFungal disease · Anthracnose is the most damaging fungal disease of chilli and sweet pepper fruit in the tropics and…
• Early blight of potato and tomatoAlternaria solaniFungal disease · Early blight is a common leaf disease of potato and tomato that makes dark brown spots with rings like a…

Oomycete diseases (water moulds)

• Damping-off of seedlingsPythium aphanidermatum and other soil-borne pathogensOomycete disease · Damping-off is the death of seeds and young seedlings caused by soil-borne water moulds and fungi, above all…

Bacterial diseases

• Bacterial wilt (Ralstonia wilt, brown rot of potato)Ralstonia solanacearum species complexBacterial disease · A soil- and water-borne bacterium that blocks the water-conducting tissue of tomato, potato, eggplant,…

Virus diseases

• Chilli leaf curl diseaseChilli leaf curl virus and related begomovirusesVirus disease · Chilli leaf curl is the most destructive virus disease of chilli in South Asia and an important one across…
• Papaya leaf curl diseasePapaya leaf curl virus and related begomovirusesVirus disease · Papaya leaf curl is a whitefly-transmitted virus disease that makes papaya leaves curl downward and inward,…
• Tomato yellow leaf curl disease (TYLCV)Tomato yellow leaf curl virusVirus disease · Tomato yellow leaf curl is caused by a virus spread by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Infected tomato plants…

Physiological disorders

• Blossom-end rotPhysiological calcium disorder (no pathogen)Physiological disorder · Blossom-end rot is a dark, sunken, leathery patch at the flower end of tomato, pepper, watermelon, squash and…