THIS INSECT CAN MAKE YOUR PEPPER PLANT LEAVES CURL UP OR DOWN!

(Tiny leaf curler, Length Approx. 0.25 mm - 1.5 mm)

July 28, 2022

It was one of the banana pepper මාඵ මිරිස් plants developed from germinating the seeds removed from the banana pepper fruits. I bought them from the local market. The potted pepper plant was growing well under direct sunlight.

 

CURLED DOWN

The plant’s height had reached about 8 inches. It looked as if the plant was not healthy. Some young leaves had curled down. I remembered a banana pepper plant on a raised bed had some curled-up leaves, about one and a half years ago. So, I relocated the potted plant. I was wondering what caused my pepper plant’s leaves to curl down.

Later, the young leaves of two potted pepper plants, which were next to the first damaged plant, were about to curl down.

 

TROUBLESHOOTING

I carefully inspected the leaves top and under, but I could not find any insects. I held a magnifying glass in my hand and continued to search for insects. I noticed some tiny white spots on the top side of a young leaf of one of the plants.

My hand-held magnifying glass was no longer helpful. I needed to increase the level of magnification to have a better view of the tiny white spots.

 

TINY LEAF CURLERS

It took a few days to find the creatures. They were on the underside of some leaves. I noticed glass-button-like insects, almost colorless, moving on the underside of the leaves. The tiny buttons measured to be 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm. Later, I also found the suspected adult insect. The adult, with light ash glass-like body, measured to be 1.5 mm long.

 

CURLED UP

I began to inspect another plant with a leaf-curl problem. However, its young leaves had curled up. I noticed a few glass-button-like creatures on the top side of some young curled-up leaves. They looked similar to the creatures that I detected on curled-down leaves. There were many baby insects underside. Other insects were also seen on the leaves that were not curled. One whitish bug was on the underside of a leaf. There were two white flies on the underside of another leaf. However, it was the little glass-button-like creatures that had curled the leaves, white-flies or whitish bugs had not curled any leaves before.

 

TRYING TO RECOVER

I held a cup under each curled leaf while I was spraying water, with a small spray bottle, onto the underside of the leaf. Also, I held a small container under the young growths අංකුර that had shot off from the plants, and sprayed water. The following day, I inspected the plants. There were some baby insects on the underside of the curled leaves. I told to myself “I need to be patient!” I sprayed water onto the underside of all the leaves of the three plants again. When I inspected the plants on the third day, I noticed that there were a few baby insects on some leaves. So, I had to spray water onto all the leaves once more. It was not impossible to catch and remove the small, fast-moving, adult insect. But it was not easy to remove the little ones.

Water spraying is difficult as the baby insects are too tiny to see. You might not see the little creatures even with a 10X magnifying glass. They are moving as well. If you see young curled-up or curled-down leaves at the plant’s top, it might indicate the presence of these glass-button-like insects. You can spray water onto the underside of the curled leaves starting from one end of the leaf to the other including young growths. You have to repeat the process for a few days.

The images were captured as it was found happening in nature, and not enhanced using software. Images may be subject to copyright.