[thrwwycbr]

They release enzymes necessary for the spice/acid production. The acid counteracts those enzymes.

If you cut open peppers, you can see the black veins which were bit by bugs, those are the ones containing the carbon acid.

A better way to protect them against virusses but not against bugs that won't harm them is by combining the top of peppers with the root of potatoes, and by using moss to heal the cuts where you combined them (e.g. with a toothpick)

Of course that won't work on an industrial scale, hence them favoring pesticides.

[progmetaldev]

I've read that slightly dehydrating your plants as they fruit is developing helps increase the capsaicin. You can also blend up the peppers and spray them down, which seems to agitate the peppers, and possibly send a chemical signal for the plant to start produce more capsaicin (although that's all been anecdotal evidence to my knowledge).

[akavi]

"The acid"? Capsaicin (the compound responsible for a pepper's "heat") is not an acid.

Also, I've never noticed "black veins" in any peppers I've prepared, including very spicy ones.

[thrwwycbr]

Well, technically, capsaicin is the end of the reaction.

Some might argue that all carbon acid amids are - as the name says - products of carbon acid reactions with ammonia.

At least in a natural, non synthesized, environment.

[ricardobeat]

The bites themselves don’t cause the plant to produce more capsaicin. It’s natural selection - plants in areas with lots of insects end up producing more capsaicin as a means of protecting themselves. They are hotter, and insects will not bite them as a result.

Happy to be proven wrong if you have sources saying otherwise, but I’m quite certain this is the science behind it.

[thaumasiotes]

This is basically the same as arguing that exposure to sunlight won't darken your skin, but it will mean that natural selection gives your descendants darker skin.

There is every reason to expect that a plant's defenses against predation will be more active the more predation it experiences.