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Vegetable Gardening

what is eating base of bell pepper plant

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

Till last year I did not have this problem. Something is eating the base of my bell pepper plant which is about 18 inches tall and producing. The critter is eating just the base of the plant and the plant is falling off and dying. It is like someone just cut it at the base. It is not touching the leaves are the bell peppers. I thought it is gopher and I put bites in all the holes around the backyard. I have also added chili powder to the base. This morning I saw that the base of another plant is chewed (only a little) and hopefully this plant will survive. I noticed that it tried to chew from the side the chili powder is not present. Mostly they were eaten when it was dark though once it happened in the afternoon too. I have eggplant, okra, tomato and other vegetable plants. But none of them were touched. I had very small Thai pepper plants but were eaten by critters. Please help me finding out who the critter could be. Thanks

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Comments (4)

Jean
6 years ago
please post pictures.
s_s_nookala thanked Jean
digdirt2
6 years ago
No idea where you live - you really need to supply that info in posts - so no idea what pests may be common to your location. Do you have mini beavers? That's what it looks like. ;-)

Could be anything from rabbits to rats, squirrels, chipmunks, voles, etc. I'd probably put my money on rats or voles. Even cutworms or slugs are a possibility that low on the plant. Can you tell us what sort of varmints you have around? What have you seen in the garden? You may have to just visit the garden after dark with a flashlight to ID the culprit.

Meanwhile it is easy enough to use sticks placed all around the stems, right up next to them, to deter the pest. Some use plastic straws, some use popsickle sticks, some just use yard twigs, some use big nails.

Dave
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s_s_nookala
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
sorry! I am posting for the first time in these type of forums and did not know what all the details are needed.

I live in San Ramon (East Bay area of San Francisco). Only ones I saw was squirrels last year and we (my neighbor and I) caught bunch of them in the cage. I think we got rid of them as we are not catching any in the last couple of months. Neighbor mentioned that he saw gophers. We have not seen moles or beavers. I do see lot of holes dug in the recent months by these critters. In the local shop they mentioned it could be gophers and I put poison bites for gophers in those holes but I still have the problem.
authereray
6 years ago
Gophers will generally pull the plant straight down a hole under the plant after cutting the roots off.

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