green bud eating caterpillars

im growing outdoor in socal i have noticed that there are green caterpillars eating buds from the inside out im at about 7 weeks flower. any tried and true preferably safe effective methods in dealing with this issue im close to harvest. next time i will use beneficials and other organic biological means of control but for this grow i need any advice on how to kill them or repel them quickly. i assume they hatch from small white eggs i have found here and there and the little bastards seem to prefer my prize larry bubba kush/pre 98 bubba kush cross. i have dealt with thrips dealt with mites gnats etc.. these are a new menace. help please plus rep for useful advice thanks time is of the essense.

spray some raid or windex on the buds that always works

i assume that was a joke if so not funny. anyways anybody have any input regarding this problem so far im thinking spinosad or a bt product but im not sure if i should spray at 7 weeks flower even though those are organic non-toxic(to mammals) products. thanks any useful advice welcome.

bicycle racer said:

i assume that was a joke if so not funny. anyways anybody have any input regarding this problem so far im thinking spinosad or a bt product but im not sure if i should spray at 7 weeks flower even though those are organic non-toxic(to mammals) products. thanks any useful advice welcome.

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it's hard to tell really. mid-late flower it's kind of bad to spray. usually spraying is preventative.

though I've heard safer catterpiller killer might work.

idk, do a bunch of research before you spray the buds this late into flowering

pyrethium spray.....or home made hot pepper and garlic....bt, pyrethrum, and rotenone

i went ahead and sprayed with spinosad which is a bacterial extract and does not smell or leave a residue like neem oil. the thing is the caterpillars usually live in the buds and happily eat there way around. so i hope the spinosad gets to them. this grow is mostly for seeds but i over pollinated so i will have minimal smokable bud and handfulls of seeds less pollen next time lol. as for the caterpillars im considering applying bt to the plants recently put in flower. bt and spinosad seem to be the only choices at this point in flower im aware of.

Ya might find some help in a post by CrazyChester re:budworms?

here is my follow up post yes there are still caterpillars eating my precious buds. every morning i go and do bud surgery on obvious wounds. i remove dead tissue and try to grab the cat in the bud what i have found is that the spinosad killed a few of then i find dead ones in my buds which is a good thing. so i can fully recommend spinosad it did no harm to my plants. the surviving cats were deep in buds and therefore not hit with spinosad but for each one i kill thats a bud i can smoke not to mention all the seeds im making. any otheres experience with this is welcome its the biggest problem i have faced growing so far.

i hate em with a passion theres no way ima spray tho, my widows are finishing up as we speak... i'll just have to use a lot of that bud for hash.

racer I have the same problem and am totally bummed. I am concerned about the taste that the sprays will cause. I went and bought a bunch of ladybugs today i will update on how they work out

the spinosad spraying with complete plant coverage killed many of them even in buds the damage has slowed considerably there are still some but not to the level of a week ago. i notice no smell or bad effect to the buds. spinosad is great it also kills thrips and mites.

That sucks bicycle racer. I was introduced to the bud worms on my first grow this year. There's a product called BT that supposedly works, but it should be used early on and more as a preventative. I was too far into flowering for it to make a dent. I spent some time digging through the buds and removing worms, but that was a losing battle. And, it was no fun. So I chopped early. Keep an eye on the damaged areas of your bud as they are now prone to becoming moldy. Another poster suggested, and maybe even tried, placing netting over the flowering plants at night to prevent the moths from laying their eggs on the buds. That sounds like a pretty effective route as well. Best of luck.

Ladybugs are on the hunt, protecting my buds from the underside. Did a search around the nugs for more cats and didn't find any today. Hopefully the ladybugs are working!!!

I got this spray from foxfarms called don't bug me. It's working great, gives those little bastards the plague on contact! lmao

They ate a bunch of my crop, payback!

I was also at about 8 weeks into flower when I applied it.

yeah cats are no joke. dont bug me is a pyrethrum based insecticide if i recall any bug it touches it kills for the most part. i use that or similar in veg or early bud growth but not late in flower. the spinosad has less smell to it and does not burn delicate tissues. also pyrethrum is rappidly broken down by sunlight but in veg i love pyrethrum products as well as neem oil. late in flower i hate spraying anything but the spinosad has pleased me. there are still live cats here and there but more often than not i find dead cats when i do bud surgery to remove dead tissue and to find the little bastards. good to see you around padawan.

Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) - "Liquid BT is formulated for spray-on applications It's the safe and natural way to control leaf-eating worms that live in hard-to-reach places. The insect eats the leaf and dies. Safe for people, pets & wildlife."

Last year I ended up having to pick through each and every bud to find 'em all. It sucked. Lost about 20%. This year I applied neem oil in veg and thus far one BT application after finding a huge cat chomping a leaf. Haven't seen another since

yes i plan to use bt and spinosad in the future in rotation look up spinosad its interesting stuff as far as its discovery and what not.

what do you mix the concentrate to? or do you go by the lable? also when do you start using it and when do you stop using it? and how often every week?. thanks jeff

i use green light spinosad product i simply follow directions and spray every couple weeks with full coverage. i try not to spray within 2 weeks to a minimum of 1 week from harvest.

RAID! not funny.Google azamax bro,i been using this stuff thru my whole season and works great 100% vegetable based,apply as close to the stem as possible and all over the bud,do this in warmth of day NOT heat of day or mold can come