Even before the last empty carcass of the spiraling whitefly had drifted to the ground, a new scourge struck my chilli plants in Anula. I had heard of the fruit fly, but had never been close to one or had seen what they could do to chilli plants.

These pesky little critters are about a half to three-quarters of a centimetre long, brownish in colour and look like a little was because they have a ovidepositor on their backside that looks like a stinger.

They sidle up to a piece of fruit, in this case my chillies and stick their pointy bit into the fruit and lay eggs that turn into maggots and that in turn makes the chilli mushy and rotten on the inside. Now, losing the odd habaneros chilli to this fate I consider fair in a garden that uses no pesticides, but when they start destroying my meagre crop of jalepeno chilli, I get mad.

My good friends at entomology who will probably cringe at my descriptions of this event identified (in about a heartbeat) what was attacking my chillis and indicated that it was quite common. Christine, a closet entomologist and local fruit and vegetable expert, suggested I track down any fruit on the bushes that looked affected, pick and destroy that and then pick all all the remaining fruit, green or not to provide a window of starvation for the little horrors.

That is exactly what I did and with the existing 350grams of red chilli including tabasco from another chilli lover, Helen blended over 800 grams of chilli ( blend in the seeds as well ) which consisisted of ten types, the most common being habaneros and tabasco.

I tried a teaspoon with my steak last night and have to report that it is up there in terms of spicyness.

 

 

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