CONTROL OF PEPPER WEEVILS IN PEPPER WITH VARIOUS INSECTICIDES, 2004

Pepper weevil is the key pest of all pepper varieties grown in south Florida as well as Texas, New Mexico and California. Insecticidal control is problematic because of the inaccessibility of all immature stages within the fruit. For this trial, greenhouse-raised pepper plants were transplanted on 31 Mar at 10-inch spacing in single rows on four sets of three beds 240 ft in length and covered with polyethylene film mulch. Water and fertilizer were provided through Netafim drip tape with 12-inch emitter spacing. The center bed in each set of three was left untreated to serve as the untreated control and a source of weevils. Each treated bed was divided into plots 30 ft long to which treatments were assigned in an RCB design with four replications. Applications were made using a high-clearance sprayer operating at 200 psi. Spray was delivered through two vertical booms, each fitted with two ceramic yellow Albuz hollow-cone nozzles for a total of 44 gpa until 25 May when one nozzle was added to each boom for an output of 66 gpa. Fallen fruit was collected weekly under 27 plants per plot by fixing wooden lathing to the beds to prevent fruit from rolling to the ground. All marketable fruit was harvested 8 Jun. Weight of marketable fruit was determined by dissecting a random sample of 50 harvested fruit per plot if available, to obtain a percentage infested with weevils and adjusting the marketable weight accordingly. Data were subjected to ANOVA and means were separated using LSD (P ≤ 0.05).