Repeat weekly as needed. Several species of cutworms feed on pepper as well as other transplants, cutting them off at ground level. Transplant wraps or collars provide a barrier and protect the transplants. Surface insecticide sprays or dusts and insecticide baits may also be used. Eggs are laid on the leaves.
Young larvae feed there for a few days, then migrate to and bore into stems.
Larvae wander to new fruit as it is being set and bore into it and mine the inside of the pepper before moving to another. Treat foliage when ECB moths are present and ovipositing. Infestation renders the peppers worthless for marketing. Pepper maggot pupates in the soil, and adults fly in mid- to late summer. Known from lower Hudson Valley, New York, and Connecticut, pepper maggot may occur in warmer regions of Vermont.