little holes in my peppers

this is our second year of gardening, last year's experiment went pretty well so we expanded greatly this year. We seem to have good luck with squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes so far but peppers (both hot and sweet) have suffered from some kind of beastie that eats a couple of tiny holes in each one, long before they are ripe, and then moves on. I'll go out and get some pictures here a little later to illustrate.

some notes- whatever it is doesn't seem to be eating the tomatoes. It also doesn't seem to have a voracious appetite, I do see some very minor chewing of the plant leaves here and there but not much at all. It doesn't eat much of the peppers either... just chews 2 or 3 tiny (maybe 1 or 2 mm diameter) holes in most of them. I really want to avoid using Sevin or something like that.

Perhaps voles?

Does it look like critter teeth? If not maybe it's birds. Birds are not affected by the capsicum in hot peppers and will nibble on them. I caught the buggers with my own two eyes...

nope, no teeth. Very small holes, and I had this problem last year, too. I got distracted yesterday and never took the picture, I'll try to get one today. I did find what I think was a very tiny hornworm on one of my green bell peppers yesterday.... this guy was little, smaller than a piece of rice but he was green. I didn't see any holes in the actual pepper so maybe he had just arrived...?

Usually the hornworms will eat only the plants, but I suppose if they had eaten all the leaves they would probably go for the fruit as well... If he was tiny he just hatched and was well on his way to munching through your leaves. Those suckers can strip a huge plant in a night so get 'em while they are tiny. Anytime I see the slightest hole in a leaf I look under it and 9 times out of 10 I find a tiny hornworm.

I'm still voting for the birds - lol.

could be birds I guess, although it is interesting that they so far have not shown an interest in the tomatoes

I vote for birds too. Last year they had a habit of poking 1 or 2 little holes in my peppers. I would cut one open and see if maybe some kind of worm is inside but other than birds and insects, not much would mess with hot peppers.

I found the security breach, caught him red handed (red mandibled?) with his butt poking out of the hole he ate in my pepper. Very small, see the pic comparing him to a penny. Is this a tomato hornworm?

Eeeeeeewwwwwwwwww... doesn't look like a hornworm. It's some kind of worm/larvae but not sure what.

If they're boring in and eating the insides of the peppers they might be pepper maggots. http://www.ent.uga.edu/veg/solanaceous/peppermaggot.htm

I just caught another one of these little beasties eating holes all through my string beans. What is the antidote for them? I've tried the hot pepper & garlic spray and I want to avoid the harsh pesticides like Sevin

If they are truly pepper maggots, I don't think there is any organic control for them at this stage. Only scary sounding names of things I won't put in my garden. Maybe row covers to prevent egg laying or sticky traps to snag the adults (fly) before they lay the eggs, but that's kinda late for you. The fly injects the eggs into the pepper and when they hatch they eat their way out. Then they fall to the ground to pupate and turn into a fly... By the time you see them though, the damage is done. From what I've read, the good news is they only have one generation per year.

http://www.ct.gov/caes/cwp/view.asp?a=2815&q=376708