bud inch worms making havoc

I have about a month left in the budding stage....i have these little, mostly green and some darker inch worms creating havoc on the buds.....at first i noticed the buds were getting dark and then just falling off and sometimes looked to be getting moldy near the inners. I looked closer and at the stock and noticed these "inch worms" were/are burrowing into the middle of the stock and laying, what looks like, either poop or eggs. What natural way can i defeat these buggers? Lady bugs?

srgsparky said:

I have about a month left in the budding stage....i have these little, mostly green and some darker inch worms creating havoc on the buds.....at first i noticed the buds were getting dark and then just falling off and sometimes looked to be getting moldy near the inners. I looked closer and at the stock and noticed these "inch worms" were/are burrowing into the middle of the stock and laying, what looks like, either poop or eggs. What natural way can i defeat these buggers? Lady bugs?

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Those are caterpillars aka "bud worms". Moths lay their eggs on your buds at night, they hatch, and the tiny worms burrow into the center of your buds where they eat and poop. They will ruin your crop of not eliminated.

There's plenty of threads on here about fighting them. There is limited success fighting them once they reach the stage you're at. There's a product called BT that can be sprayed on your plants that has some success with killing them. Bicycle racer also recommends a product called Spinosad - google it to find out what it is. Another poster also recommends placing netting over your plants at night to prevent the moths from laying their eggs on your buds.

If you want to let your plants finish, you are going to have to mount a full scale battle. Inspect all of your buds every day. Get some needle nose pliers or something similar to pry into the interior of the buds and remove the little worms. Use BT or Spinosad as well. Unfortunately, you will lose a percentage of your crop to the damage they cause.

Sorry you have these. They ruined my plant. Best of luck to you.

I am also in the same situation. I had the same problem last year and lost some good bud because of these @#%*& ers. What I have been doing this year is to inspect my buds daily. Especially in the morning. The key is to look for any leafs that are looking like they are wilting. They will have turned brown. Dig into the bud carefully and look for any of the black spots, especially around the stem. If you find the poop, you will have a worm/catapiller somewhere in that vicinity. Keep looking, follow the trail of poop up and down the buds in that area. I recommend a metal skewer to dig around with. Once you find one, pull it out and make it SUFFER!!! Make sure and clean out the dead bud and all of the poop. This is very important as the poop will hold in moisture and mold your buds. I use a hand sprayer with water and spray the crap out of there. This seems to have saved some of the buds. I think I am going to try the nets over them at night and picking by the day. I can tell you that I feel much more in control of the problem than I did last year. I will still lose some, but I think of it as my donation back to nature.
Good luck to you.

srgsparky said:

I have about a month left in the budding stage....i have these little, mostly green and some darker inch worms creating havoc on the buds.....at first i noticed the buds were getting dark and then just falling off and sometimes looked to be getting moldy near the inners. I looked closer and at the stock and noticed these "inch worms" were/are burrowing into the middle of the stock and laying, what looks like, either poop or eggs. What natural way can i defeat these buggers? Lady bugs?

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Bug zapper lights and netting BEFORE they lay eggs.. if you grow outside, you need netting and bug zapper lights before the moths lay eggs.. once they lay your going to loose lots of bud and they like the top biggest buds.. Little M#$*&^%#RS

are these the thing people are calling thc worms? look it up, big debate,, i cant find out if they are true or myth. i wonder because years ago i bought a bag and after breaking some up to roll a j,, on the paper me and a friend seen little worms the size of the hairs on a bud wiggling around,, he called em thc worms..till today i still dont know for sure what they were and that fn weed was expensive stuff at that time....anybody know truth??