Insecticidal Control of Pepper Weevil on Jalapeño Pepper, 2005

Abstract

Pepper weevil is the major pest of all pepper varieties in the southern parts of the US, due in part to the inaccessibility of all but the adult stage to insecticide sprays. Best results have been achieved with rotations of products such as were evaluated in this experiment. Greenhouse-raised pepper plants were transplanted on 22 Mar at 10-inch spacing in single rows on two sets of three beds 250 ft in length and covered with polyethylene film mulch. Approximately 20% of the fertilizer was preplant soil incorporated and 80% applied through the drip tape. The center bed in each set of three was left untreated to serve as a source of weevils. Each treated-bed was divided into plots 42 ft long to which treatments were assigned in a RCB design with four replications. A high-clearance sprayer was used operating at 180 psi and 2.3 mph with the spray delivered through two vertical booms using yellow Albuz hollow cone nozzles that applied 10 gpa each. The first three applications were applied with two nozzles on each boom applying a total of 40 gpa, and then increased to three nozzles applying 60 gpa on subsequent applications as the plants grew taller (Table 1). As the number of gpa was increased to maintain spray coverage on the taller plants, the rate per acre was kept constant.