This pest prefers peppers but also attacks eggplant. It is believed that its natural food is horsenettle. Females deposit eggs under the skin of peppers.
Maggots eat the core of the pepper, causing it to decay or drop from the plant.
The pupal stage, in which the insect overwinters, is spent buried 2 to 4 inches in the soil. Adult flies appear in late June. There is one generation each year.