Name the pest from what you can see, then open the IFAS sheet. A spray invented here is not a label. Gloves on hot peppers: IFAS Datil Peppers warns fruit and plants irritate skin and eyes.
Aphids
Soft clusters on new growth and under leaves. Honeydew and ants often travel with them. UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions pests pages are the ID cite. Wash, then read the label if you still need a product.
Thrips
Scraped, silvered leaf faces and distorted new growth. Confirm with a hand lens. IFAS vegetable thrips sheets describe the damage; they do not authorize a mix we print here.
Whiteflies
A cloud off the underside of a leaf when the plant is bumped is the field tell IFAS describes for whiteflies on vegetables. Confirm on the leaf, not from one fly in the air.
Hornworms
Large green caterpillars strip solanaceous leaves. Frass on the pot rim is often easier to see than the worm. Hand-pick is the first IFAS home-garden move on similar solanum pages.
Mites
Stippled, dusty leaf faces in hot, dry spells. Confirm with a hand lens.
Bacterial spot
Angular leaf spots and fruit lesions on peppers show up in warm, wet stretches. IFAS disease pages for pepper bacterial spot are the cite. Sanitation and resistant stock are what those pages discuss.
Root-knot nematodes
Ask IFAS NG005: galls on roots, plants that wilt in heat even when the pot looks watered. Sandy Central Florida soils are the setting that bulletin assumes. Confirm by lifting a doomed plant. Rotation and resistant stock stay on that page. Also on soil and fertility.
A shorter ID pass lives at Pest ID. Updated 2026-08-31.