Making caterpillars come out of hiding

Hello everyone!

I have a small, outdoor grow. One of my plants is beautiful, lush and lemony, but has some caterpillars that I've been picking off. I'm intent on keeping her in the ground for 2 more weeks (pretty sure that's when she'll be finished), but the caterpillars I've been picking are getting quite large from her.

Every morning I'll go out and I have to really peer into her foliage into the buds in order to see them, as they blend in quite well. I've seen a couple of areas where the caterpillars have bored right through leaves, bud... anything. Is there anything I can do to make them come out of their hiding places better, as it seems they're going to try and eat her from the inside out. I'm not interested in spraying poisons... definitely don't want that in the end product. I'm in a humid environment, but it's always breezy so I'm not opposed to spraying her with water... if that will help the caterpillars show their faces.

Any ideas/tips on how to get them to come out so I can pick them would be greatly appreciated

Thats a good question. I said something before about trying to smoke them out but got no response. Maybe burning neem oil. Dont know how much you would need to burn outdoors though. I know that whatever you do you need to make them leave, otherwise you will be smoking dead worms.

like the caterpillar in alice in wonderland....sorry to hear they are eating you up. wonder if watering them heavily will cause them to come out. it just might

Thank you for the replies. But the more I looked the more I saw, and decided then and there to take her down. I'm sorry to have to do it, but I have several more that will be in heavy flower soon, and I want to be able to spray them with something organic but deadly (still need to do some research on that today), and I don't want her getting affected by the spray because she's so close to being done. I figured... why wait and lose more?

We'll see how she is when she's cured. I really want that lemony smell to stay through the drying process and curing!

you need to use BT. read the sticky bud worm thread at the top of the outdoor forum, it has all the info you need!