Well something is attacking some of my chillies and stunting the growth. The new leaves seem to be the most attacked and where this happens the plants cant produce flowers or more leaves. This is really disheartening and it's either snails and slugs or aphids. But growing chillies in Durban South Africa this is almost a tropical climate and so could be a whole host of bugs.
Snails and Slugs
These only come out when it's dark so will go with a torch and investigate. Otherwise it's something else. If it snails i can pick them off one by one and eradicate them. Trouble is each snail can lay several eggs so there can be a hole army of them breeding now. There aren't any dry leaves at the base of the plants for them to hide to the other thing could be Aphids.
Aphids
These tiny almost white spec looking creatures also could be destroying the new shoots. I have sprayed a mixture of soap once only, but have still noticed new chutes being chomped. I will try once a week but don't want to over do it as I'm sure the chilli plants wont be pleased. The other thing is to go the Natural way and try get a whole bunch of ladybirds. Ladybirds are natural predators for aphids.
Anybody got any suggestions please comment?
