What is this worm?

Hello all...long time lurker and first time poster. This is my first outdoor grow in 20 years. I have three Gorilla Glue autos on my deck. Tomorrow will be the beginning of week 10...probably week 6 of flower. I started noticing these a few days ago. I picked a couple of the off the first day and then today I found 10 on one plant today. I have a bad feeling this is a tobacco budworm. All the worms I have found have been this size....very small. I haven’t noticed and buds that look bad/discolored or any leaves that are being eaten. Most of the worms are sitting on the buds. If these are budworms can I spray BT this late in the game? I’m trying to grow as natural as possible. Thanks for helping out the noob.

Bud worms. I spray with BT once a week to kill their eggs before they hatch.

Thanks Eddy....can you use BT until harvest?

Yes, BT is a beneficial bacteria and you mix it with water and apply to the foliage. It does not kill eggs though, the worms have to eat plant matter that has been sprayed. Once ingested, the bacteria ruins the worms whole day, which turns out to be his last.

If I spray during flowering, I stop a month before harvest, and wash my plants.

Thanks for the reply. I just started week 10 with autflowers...hate to spray this late but I carefully inspected every bud site for days and picked off every worm I could find. I woke up this morning and found 6 more so I soaked them with BT. Have no choice I guess...

Looks like a capatiller

That right there is your worst enemy

If your finding caterpillars this late into flowering, chances are you have many eggs deposited on your buds and just as likely, more caterpillars in the core of your buds that are depositing frass and eating away. It was a learning lesson for me during my last outdoor grow when I lost almost all of my fat colas due to these guys. You can spray now, but that may lead to budrot if your too far along and can't dry out your buds. Also, any frass left by them will rot your buds. I decided to take a different course this time and net off my plants so no moths could lay their eggs on my gals. It's a learning lesson for sure... I feel for ya!

I wanted to add a follow up to this thread with an update. Since I sprayed again with BT I haven’t noticed any more caterpillars or worms. I soaked all the buds really well. Let it dry in shade for a couple hours and then shook the stalks to get any droplets off. Put them back in the sun and haven’t had any issues since. Here they are 2 weeks after spraying. I’m only a couple weeks from harvest so I’m hoping for no more worms for two weeks...say a prayer to the bud gods for me everyone.