get you some Neem Oil and spray those plants good under the leaves and on top of the leaves give the whole plant a good soaking

Thank you for your response mrmulcher.

Any suggestion as to what the pest is?

Bill

Bill,

When I'm stumped on a bug ID I go to the guide and forums at the link below.

jt

Here is a link that might be useful: BugGuide

jt,

Thanks for pointing me to the Bug Guide site. It looks like a great resource! I will definitely tap into the experts there.

Whatever I have, it seems to be quite partial to pepper plants only. I had tomato plants sitting beside the peppers and they are unaffected (so far).

Thought IÂd post a few more shots of the plants incase they click with someone who has experienced my dilemma (30% of my plants are beyond recovery so far). I picked up some Neem oil as mrmulcher suggested and will spray them all this afternoon.

At first I though I had a water related problem. Initial symptoms showed up as leaf bubbling and curling. I did not pay too much attention to the brown spots.

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As the pest grew and multiplied they started sapping the leaves.

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Eventually leaves turn tan to bronze color and dry up and die.

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I'd post a shot of the carcasses of claimed peppers so far by this thing but that would be cruel LOL. The only bright spot thus far is that my plants started from seeds John (aka fiedlermeister) generously shared with me are all just showing initial signs of being infected. Hoping I can get this under control before it cclaaims more plants!

Bill

The silvering plus the black dots (more likely excrement than eggs) resembles thrips damage to me.

But I must say that I haven't seen that "bubbling" of the leaves with thrips damge.

In any event, you'll need to apply whatever you spray to the undersides of the leaves.

Jean001,

Thank you for responding. After reading your reply I checked out a few sites dealing with Thrips. Based on my reading, I think you are bang on with your ID.

One greenhouse management site stated that they typically attack pepper plants starting on top leafs and new growth. It also stated they typically attack tomato plants from the bottom leaves and work up. Bingo, this is exactly what IÂm seeing. (I stated earlier that they didnÂt seem interested in my tomato plants but this morning I find that I was mistaken. On closer inspection, they have started to attack leaves on bottom branches)

IÂll continue to apply Neem oil with a dose of insecticidal soap to try to get things under control before I resort to harsher measures. They will also begin living outside fulltime today.

Knowing your enemy is 99% of the battle. Thanks again for your help!

Bill