First Time Grower - Mold? Bugs? SoCal Outdoor Grow

Appreciate you stopping by to help out a rookie. Quick background - started from a clone, been outdoor the whole grow, pretty simple approach feeding just water and bottled nutrients (BioThrive grow and then bloom), now in week 5ish of flower. Luckily, no big issues to note to this point... except maybe this one?

During my morning check-in I noticed that one of the bud sites had a little grouping of orange hairs, which I know is the expected color for them to turn but that particular spot stands out as there are very few orange hairs elsewhere. Looking more closely and pulling back the bud I noticed little brown dots. I'm concerned this is a mold/spider problem? I'm hoping someone can help me identify what this is and if there's a way to go about fixing it. I noticed this same thing happening in one other place, but on a different branch.

Let me know if more pics are needed.

Thanks again all.

A

Bud worms

Yup budworms. That black stuff is their shit. I recommend finding them and then making them fight each other. Its a cruel world we live in.

You might have catapillars by works miracles and will save your crop

Thanks all, much appreciated. I went ahead and picked up some BT.

Question - for the buds that have been affected, should I just leave them be or remove them now?

You can leave it. It will dry out then you can easily pick it off. No sense in cutting off more than needs to be.

You veterans are keeping us rookies in the game... I appreciate the help.