What is eating my peppers?!

LLM

Hi all,

We've got a lovely crop of peppers growing in out polytunnel, however something has been eating them! Can you give us an idea of what pest this may be and how to stop it?

Thanks in advance!

BobTheGardener

Unless you can actually find the culprit inside, all that can be said is that is will be a moth or fly larva (caterpllar/grub) but there is almost no information on the web about specific UK pests which cause this (lots on US pests which don't exist here.)  My money is on the European Corn Borer moth, which I suspect has now spread to most of the UK:

https://ukmoths.org.uk/species/ostrinia-nubilalis

They insert an egg into the flesh of the pepper and the grub hatches and burrows inside.  I always get this on a few fruit, whether grown in the greenhouse or outside, which suggests the moth/fly is small and unnoticeable.  If growing under glass, you could try hanging yellow sticky fly/moth traps around the plants.  Being edibles, you don't want to be spraying any pesticides onto your food, so that's probably the only way to attempt prevention.  Good luck.