Planted four bell pepper starts a month ago, and within the first week, three of them had been stripped to just the stems. There were no bits or lacework on the leaves, one day the leaves were there, next day they were clipped to the stem. I bought two more pepper plants this past weekend - they were about 8-10" tall...planted Saturday and Monday one was completely stripped of all leaves down the just the main stem...the other only had a couple leaves left.

I have TONS of beautiful lettuce and carrots growing, but whatever it is doesn't seem tempted. Only when there were no peppers to munch did it get a couple carrot tops, and one okra plant. It seems completely isolated to one corner of my little 4x4' plot.

Any ideas? I've tried to check often to find the culprit, but I'm assuming it's happening at night.

What can I do? Hubby says to put up some chicken wire, but a squirrel or rabbit could get over that I assume... ?

Help!?

Sorry to hear about your peppers, Thoroski. Are you growing any potatoes? Just a thought, but when I grew potatoes one year (never again!) they attracted so many bugs that my eggplant was wiped out, as you describe, and okra, though the peppers were not bothered as much, though they are in the same family, so it is a possibility. Of course, if you aren't growing potatoes, another plant may be the culprit, but I've never had anything else do the same, as far as attracting the bugs, and those beetle larvae can totally strip an eggplant overnight, I discovered like you did. Yet the potatoes didn't seem to loose a leaf, they had so many! If this is it, or something like it, you will see a bunch of reddish (depending on the species) larvae under the leaves, and it won't matter when you look - they are there 24/7. If you still have some left, and this is it, try a quick kill with some pyrethrins, along with some neem oil in the solution to help keep them away; since there will be some eggs still out there that haven't hatched, keep an eye out for them, but the neem oil seems to help keep them away, though this varies from bug to bug.

If at night, maybe slugs? I have had them attacked by slugs, though they usually preferred leafy greens and basil - not that much into lettuce in my garden (maybe not nutritious enough for them? lol). I have had such problems with slugs in spring that I started way back spreading around early EVERY season some slug pellets (the iron phosphate kind), and again before I plant things, so I don't have a problem anymore. Look under the leaves in the morning, just before it gets very light, and they will be there, if that is the culprit.

Good luck finding whatever it is!

Dave

Thanks so much for the reply! No I don't have any peppers, and I haven't seen any pests or eggs... It was literally 24 hours for one plant, in the POURING rain. I put it out, the next day it was stripped - perfectly healthy plant. Very strange!

I did wonder about slugs, but the damage seems to fast and extensive.

I came across some posts on another forum while googling and it seems birds, starlings in particular, might be the culprit - there were several people who had seen the birds taking the leaves and it was isolated to peppers! We have a TON of birds in our area, and some are even nesting in our wall (very old house and we rent, landlord doesn't want to fix it)... so it's definitely a possibility and makes the most sense since I've never seen a slug trail or rabbit in my yard....

Maybe we'll get some netting and see if that helps... but then my concern is pollination

I second the vote for birds. They are a big nuisance here on my peas, melons and tomatoes. Try the netting, shouldn't mess with pollination and once the plants are bigger, they may be safer, so you can remove the netting.

I lost not only 3 pepper plants, but 4 tomatoes, a marigold, 2 new black-eyed susan plants and some alyssum and green onions to the darn crows! They just rip them right out of the ground root and all. I thought I was going crazy when my plants were disappearing overnight until I saw them carrying plants to their nests. They don't seem to bother the bigger plants-maybe a leaf or branch-but the newly planted ones I have to protect.

I vote for rabbits, they can be troublesome early in the spring. Squirrels can too, but they usually just chew plants up and root around.

Try this....dig around the soil about a half inch deep where the seedlings were destroyed. If you catch it quick enough, you probably will see a small cutworm taking a snooze. I just went through this exact same thing with my peppers. I've got a potato patch right next to the peppers, herbs right next to the peppers, onions, garlic, lettuce...the peppers are in the middle of the bed! They only cut down my peppers!! After talking with my extension officer, he told me to dig in the dirt down maybe half inch, and sure enough, I found 4 little cutworms snoozing after their dinner. They only work at night and can be devastating.