bud eating green caterpillars

[bicycle racer]

same shit im dealing with so horrible to watch your hard work go to waste. after spraying spinosad i did find a few dead cats and i pick them off by hand when i see them. i also remove dead plant matter and sometimes catch them in the buds i hate them very much and feed them to ants. i have spiders here and there on my plants which dont bother me i saw a spider today with a caterpillar in its mouth i was pleased to see that. so the spinosad spraying a few days ago caused no rot killed at least a few cats and left no smell or residue. so i dont advise spraying late in flower but if in a dry climate like socal it seems to be ok. im going to pick up some bt to use in conjunction with spinosad for my newer plants. one thing to note if your growing stincky bubbas and og kushes beware the cats prefer those plants so sad.

 

[organicdave]

Yea its a shame to see prize buds go to waste like that.
Found a few in the very tip of a few colas a few weeks back -those bastards. The buds continued to swell though. Just cut off the bad part.
Im in a dry area and have really soaked the buds with the BT spray and the cats really are gone from what I see. No bad results from the spraying here.

Funny, the OG is the only plant they didnt touch in my garden.

Good Luck

 

[skeedro]

fucking caterpillars

 

[the man with no]

death to them all...

 

[bicycle racer]

so a follow up post the cats are still reaping havoc every morning i look for dead tissue and do bud surgery removing dead tissue to expose the living and hopefully find and remove cats. i sprayed spinosad a few days ago it had no negative effect on the plants but i have found as many dead cats as alive so i can fully endorse spinosad. if i was in veg or the buds not so dense i think sporadic spraying of bt and spinosad would eliminate the problem. spinosad is a good product it has no bad smell no residue and kills cannabis plants worst pests spider mites cats and thrips as long as you hit them directly. if your in a dry climate i would not fear bud rot from spraying i have found none even in badly damaged areas so spray away better than yielding nothing. growing outdoors i will say really teaches you patience and educates you on the circle of life. anyways it seems cats do pick one strain over another they have still damaged all plants but prefer some by far. all comments or advice welcome peace

 

[bicycle racer]

yes death to them all and yes fucking caterpillars. when found i feed them to ants a little taste of there own medicine.

 

[the man with no]

unfortunately outside grow means you get outside hassles... but i think the plant grows far better - the highs alot better too imho... perceiveer - but i would check for curled stuck together leaves that seem stuck together - early recon works wonders... take the trouble everyday - its work well spent! I found one today a leaf stuck to another , looked like a bushy effect, but yes - was a caterpillars sleeping bag - applied pressure to the "sleeping bag" and the bugger stuck its head out the end - i like looking in the eye of a soon to be dead tube of puss....

Im now finishing two heavy lady's under some special hort perspex just to keep them out of the wet , but i find a few spiders homing between them - i have no issue with them myself , there very good security guards! - i still have one outside , ill keep her outside for another week perhaps then put her with the other two - pics will follow soon... ill return to here and post them... - if the original thread starter doesn't object?

 

[bicycle racer]

yeah spiders get free room and board on my plants the other day a spider had a caterpillar in its mouth i wanted to give it a kiss lol. so weeks later after i strated this thread most plants have been harvested the spinosad did wonders and i will use it again in conjunction with bt. in the future i will spray every week or so up to 3 weeks from harvest on low humidity days. i have done this on my newer plants so far so good.

 

[bicycle racer]

yes please post your pics i would like to see this hort perspex product rain will be an issue soon. i flower outdoor in socal year round by vegging on a long light cycle indoor in that way tricking the plants into flowering even during the longest days of summer.

 

[Rolln J]

arachnids always get a pass in my garden -little spiders always seems to make their homes down low in between my reservoirs and trays and just inside the grow bags too - maybe because I have to much air moving everywhere else...

and even if there was a web or two on my nugs it would be gone by the time I was done hand trimming each nug like its a fucking work of art anyhow. I like a super clean trim.

 

[purpleberry]

I learned alot of leasons my first outside grow. First of all the cats leave a trail of wounds that will grow mold like crazy. I lost a bit to mold, it rained for 2 days right after I chop and humidity hits 70%, with tons of air flow. Nothing I really do except chop them up and save what I can. Huge indica buds can suck. The plants with more sativa are good. And OG kush rocks outside, huge yeild for 4' hi plant, caterpillars dont really touch it, and its dank. I want a early,purple,40% sativa,huge yeilding,dank, kush,mold resistant plant for outside, I dont ask to much. Really its just like inside, you have to spray at the right time to prevent what you know is going to be there.

 

[bicycle racer]

outdoor yields well but indoor is much easier controlling things. its a learning curve as well the more you know regarding how to deal with problems outdoor the quicker the problems are resolved. my current plants near harvest are more or less cat free.

 

[Swerve]

i hate these dam things, boy do they love og.

 

[bicycle racer]

yes swerve they do they went after my larry/bubbas more than any others. worst pests i have dealt with mites thrips are nothing compared to cats imo. thankfully this grow was mainly for seeds so most buds will be made into bho. what i know now is the safe effective answer is spinosad and b.t. sprayed early through mid flower. the plants i have done this too are looking great and catt free. although one blue dream/bubba hybrid had one catt which died from spinosad but then the rain came. even though my plants were covered some mold began to form in the catt wounds which destroyed a large bud. but i manged to trim the dead matter and the rest of the plant seems fine. were all lucky humidity is low in socal usually or you could lose a whole plants from these pests. im going to look into other biological controls like certain predatory wasp species praying mantises etc..

 

[purpleberry]

I went back to the farm today and the 3 mendo plants are 80%+ gone from mold, what i saved last night was fucked today, even where there was no caterpillars........I still have a nice looking true BB outside with no caterpillars that I know of.
Really they didnt touch the OG kush cut i have. They went straight for the mendo purps which could be purple indica are something along those lines.

 

[7rayos]

The most annoying bit with worms are not only they eat the bud, they also shit on the leaves, and that shit grows fungi, which you'll notice well after is cured and you get a bud and dissolves like powder. Someone mention BT, that's Bacillus Thuringiensis, innocuous for the plant, can be used literally up to the day you harvest, although i'm not totally sure if it would leave any taste (vaguely remember someone saying it would). If the plants are sprayed a few regular times with BT up to the 4th week into flower, forget caterpillars, and no taste issues.

 

[Rolln J]

I always get confused about this - is it the spray or the powder bt you want to get?

 

[7rayos]

I think it comes in different versions, some in powder, some in a kind of thick liquid, but in both cases you dissolve it in water and spray your plants with it, making sure you reach the back of the leaves.

 

[bicycle racer]

again spinosad is great as well it is a bacterial extract and is a similar product to b.t. it has no effect on buds or plants in general only kills some bugs leaving beneficials unharmed. it leaves no smell or taste and is harmless to mammals. moral of the story is spinosad and b.t. are the effective safe solution anyone with caterpillars should use. on a side note spinosad kills mites and thrips as well and bt is effective in soil or resevoirs for fungus gnat larvae if i recall correctly.

 

[DVS_mofo]

ok, first post here. figured i can help you guys out a lot. i am an experienced grower here in california. thank you prop 215.

these guys are called cutworms, or armyworms. they come from a moth that looks like this http://bugguide.net/node/view/6018. the easiest way to get rid of these guys is to bring your plants in at night. these moths come out at night only. another option is to drape mosquito netting over your plants at night.

there is a mixture you can make up that is easy. put the ingredients in a one gallon container then fill it with water.
1 tablespoon cayan pepper (must be cayan)
1 cup vinegar
put that mixture in a spray bottle and spray over the exterior of the plants (only a mist if they are budding). do that and it will repel the moths and irritate and kill the worms.

bottom line if you want to do a proper outdoor grow and not worry about pests, you have to use a green house, or a mosquito net style green house.

hope this helps, i will introduce myself and get some pics up of my babies soon.