Pepper Weevils

If you bite into a pepper and find tiny grubs, it might be pepper weevils.

Pepper weevil on bud (Alton N. Sparks, Jr., UGA, Bugwood.org) CC BY 3.0

Pepper weevils (Anthonomus eugenii) are specialists. These beetles are not interested in other members of the nightshade family, so your eggplants and tomatoes are safe, for now. But your chili peppers, jalapeños, sweet peppers, and tomato peppers are not.
 
Like your peppers, pepper weevils prefer hot weather. Native to Mexico, these pests have moved northward with the changing climate as far as Canada and the Netherlands. How they got across the ocean is anyone’s guess, but probably on infested fruit.
 
Adult pepper weevils are only 1/6th of an inch long, black, brown, or gray, with bent antennae and a long, curved weevil snout.
 
Pepper weevils eat flower and leaf buds, which can put a serious dent in your pepper harvest. Making matters worse, female pepper weevils cut holes in developing buds, lay an egg in each one, and then plug the hole with bug poop. When the egg hatches, the larva burrows its way to the center of the fruit, growing and pooping until it reaches a pupal stage. As adults, they continue feeding on the fruit on their way out and then start the cycle again. Females produce nearly 350 eggs in their very short lifetime.

Pepper weevil larva in fruit (Alton N. Sparks, Jr., UGA, Bugwood.org) CC BY 3.0

Chemical controls are ineffective since adult pepper weevils tend to stay hidden in the lower parts of the plant, especially as temperatures rise. Check flowers, fruit, and leaf whorls each morning as you wander through your garden. Unfortunately, pepper weevils have few natural enemies, so quarantine new plants and remove all infested fruit.
 
You can use pheromone traps to monitor for pepper weevils. Keep in mind, however, that pheromone traps attract pests. Pepper weevils overwinter in black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), so keep those away from your pepper plants.