Inchworms right before harvest

My plants got about a week left till harvest and I've recently found 5 inchworms and Abt 6 little baby inchworms on her. I ordered TB spray from Amazon, should arrive today! Am I handling this correctly and does anyone have any advice for this particular issue?
 

FirstCavApache64

Well-Known Member
My plants got about a week left till harvest and I've recently found 5 inchworms and Abt 6 little baby inchworms on her. I ordered TB spray from Amazon, should arrive today! Am I handling this correctly and does anyone have any advice for this particular issue?
I don't know what TB has in it but you want to watch what you spray on your buds with a week to go. You can really screw up the taste of your bud if you are not careful. Those are caterpillars that cause bud rot and if you are seeing them you better do a very good inspection of your buds for brown and or gray areas. They eat and poop in the buds and cause the buds to rot away from the inside and it just gets all soft. They will also make little cocoons under the leaves that can trap moisture. They come from moths laying eggs on your plants. Most outdoor growers use a product called BT throughout their grow which is toxic to the little bastards but organic and safe on buds. It takes a day or two to work since they have to consume it. I would for sure wash your buds with a good bud wash to make sure you rinse as much of the crap off the buds as possible, but I would do that anyway when growing outside. Flashlights and tweezers are your new best friends, the little ones are like grains of rice, evil little shits. If you see an area that is discolored pull on it and it will probably just come apart. If you find rot cut the area out totally and spray it with some peroxide to treat the wound. Good luck with it, I found a couple on my plants today too. It's a daily chore this time of year for sure. Preventative spraying with BT goes a long way to limiting the damage but the inspections are key.
 
Thanks for responding. I didn't do any preventative sprays but I will next time for sure. You live and you learn,luckily I only have one small autoflower but a buddy of mine just threw away 2 lbs attempting to salvage the rest of his harvest!
 

fskitch

Well-Known Member
*BT
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Fine to spray all the way up till your last week. Just wash buds after harvest in H2O2 solution.
 
Already got some, I was trying to see if anyone knew how close you could use it to harvest. All my friends say don't spray anything with a week to go but since then I've discovered bt spray is safe up until the day of harvest.
 
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sdboltdude

Well-Known Member
I don't know what TB has in it but you want to watch what you spray on your buds with a week to go. You can really screw up the taste of your bud if you are not careful. Those are caterpillars that cause bud rot and if you are seeing them you better do a very good inspection of your buds for brown and or gray areas. They eat and poop in the buds and cause the buds to rot away from the inside and it just gets all soft. They will also make little cocoons under the leaves that can trap moisture. They come from moths laying eggs on your plants. Most outdoor growers use a product called BT throughout their grow which is toxic to the little bastards but organic and safe on buds. It takes a day or two to work since they have to consume it. I would for sure wash your buds with a good bud wash to make sure you rinse as much of the crap off the buds as possible, but I would do that anyway when growing outside. Flashlights and tweezers are your new best friends, the little ones are like grains of rice, evil little shits. If you see an area that is discolored pull on it and it will probably just come apart. If you find rot cut the area out totally and spray it with some peroxide to treat the wound. Good luck with it, I found a couple on my plants today too. It's a daily chore this time of year for sure. Preventative spraying with BT goes a long way to limiting the damage but the inspections are key.
I found my first sign with a digital magnifying glass1_2.gif
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
If you only have a week until harvest don't spray anything. Just cut out the parts with the worms. All any spray is going to do is kill them and they'll still be in the plant just dead. Any part of the plant compromised by worms/caterpillars should be discarded as it's full of excrement that you won't wash away with a bud wash as it will be inside the buds.

You can look inside the buds and if you see any with the tell tale signs of little black particles then cut and toss. Those black particles are shit. Nothing you spray at this point is going to do anything about that and with a week left it's best to not spray anything despite what some products claim can be sprayed until the day of harvest. And those directions don't really apply to a plant like cannabis that's going to be dried and smoked.
 

FirstCavApache64

Well-Known Member
With a week to go, like mentioned above I wouldn't be spraying anything on them. Try to be as vigilant as possible and if it's getting bad you might just have to chop it early. It's really unfortunate but it's a choice a ton of growers are facing right now. Whether to chop their plants a couple weeks early or risk losing them to bud rot. The lesson I've learned this year in my first year outdoors is to start early with preventative spraying. I missed out on it this year. I'm going to start that early next year.
 
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