Companion Planting - African Bird’s Eye Chillies
- Robert Sifuna
- Jan 6
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 30
The common pests for chilies are aphids
Vampires of the plants - they suck sap and emit a sort of sweet fluid which attracts ants - These ants protect them from predators like the minute Pirate bug
that has a mouth shaped like a wooden splinter ( to drive into the aphids heart 😅 )
And the oh so beautiful ! Lady bugs also eats aphids - one can eat up to 100 aphids in it’s lifespan ( that’s a lot )
Now to attract these Aphid predators ( Pirate and Lady bug ) you plant humble flowers in our case sunflowers..
Another pest is the Leaf miner:- these are the small larvae of many species of flies and moths, they lay eggs between the upper and lower layers of the leaf hatching into larvae which burrow between the layers leaving white tracks behind. This makes the pesticide spray ineffective on them, you can see evidence of this as they burrow around these two layers of leaves without actually puncturing
there’s one insect that has outsmarted the Leaf minor .. drumroll please….the parasitic wasp!!
This wasp also stabs the larvae right through the leaf ( lots of stabbing going on here 🤣 ).. laying eggs in the larvae which when they hatch - starts eating the larvae from the inside out - ouch!!
Another pest is the teeny tiny White fly - if you brush against the leaves you might see white dust or under the leaf there is white fingerprint looking pattern
If left unchecked the plant will have beard looking strands 🧔🏿♂️and over time they suck sap leaving the leaves looking yellow and or shriveled and eventually die.. it’s predator is the Big-eyed bug.. all plants above attract this handy guy below
…and Damsel bugs
Marigolds, lavender and thyme attract damsel bugs in addition any shrubs near your peppers,
So take home point is diversity - so forget mono cropping- especially if you don’t want to use pesticides ( even organic ones that if not used correctly can hurt beneficial micro biodiversity)
Ps if I have forgotten, omitted of you think something is not right please add in the comments 🙏🏾
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