Garden Pests and Diseases: Mysterious Pepper Defoliation , 1 by artisalchemy

artisalchemy wrote:
I\'m at a loss as to figure out what is defoliating my pepper transplants. This is now my second round of starts, grrrrr. I initially blamed cutworms since the defoliation happened (what seemed) over night. I\'ll add that my watermelon seedlings met the same fate, though, mysteriously my tomatoes, basil, fruit trees & blackberry bush haven\'t been harmed. My attempt to fend off the cutworms with a heap of diatomaceous earth (probably slight overkill but...again, grrrr) failed comically. An hour or two after laying the de I came out to find all my pepper starts reduced to a thin pole. No criminal in sight or even a trail! Must have been something with wings but what? I searched the nearby tomatoes for evidence but didn\'t find any hiding beetles and I can\'t wrap my head around what targets peppers with such precision. Help!