Tobacco Etch Virus

Symptoms

Dark green vein-banding and a mottled, etched appearance on younger pepper leaves, with puckering and downward cupping as infection advances. Fruit set drops sharply and pods that do form are small and misshapen. Tabasco and other C. frutescens types collapse quickly, which is what made the virus a commercial threat to the Louisiana crop rather than a nuisance.

Management

Spread by aphids within seconds of probing, so insecticides do not reliably stop transmission and are not a control on their own. It is not carried on seed, so clean transplants, removal of perennial weed hosts around the field, and resistant varieties do the work. Resistance is available in pepper and was moved into Tabasco by Louisiana State University to produce Greenleaf Tabasco.