Bugs eating my yellow bell pepper

Question

For some reason my yellow bell pepper plant is dying very quickly. When I first got the plant it was thriving putting out peppers like no end. Now the branches are turning brown leaves falling off. The plant is still in a pot. So I wondered if the roots were ballin up too much but I think something is eating it slowly. The leaves are chewed on before they turn yellow and fall. As I look on the inside if the broken plants it seems to have been chewed on everyplace the stalk is turning brown

so maybe someone just bknow what kind of bug or disease would do this kind of damage by the photos. Ive tried coffee grounds Epsom salt I also tried a few things to ward off ants cause I see the little black ants on it, but I think they are cleaning up the dead. So far plant is steady dying. :(

Answer 1

Do you have slugs in your area? We do, and I've seen that kind of "slug scrape" damage on some of our plants before.

Since these are in pots, remove any dead material from the top of the soil and check under the mulch, and under the pots themselves for hidden slugs. If the pots have a rim, run your finger under it to see if you have slimy pepper eaters lurking there during the day time.

If this is slug damage, you may need to take action in order to save your plants. With our super heavy slug load, I've had to (unhappily) resort to sprinkling Sluggo under our more vulnerable plants in order to have anything left above the soil at all. (Pacific Northwest rainforest)