Yeah! It's Bud Worm Season. Pics

MrSaltine420 said:
Man, just quit putting chemicals on them and pick them out.
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blower said:
Yes think about it tho, like huge farming for veggies. Do you want to produce medicine that has been sprayed. Even though it's 'safer or organics like
Just pick them bugs off, feed in waterings
Tag affect buds and check every day
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If you have more than a few plants and they are all over head height there is no way to pic them off. maybe if you are just growing one little plant for personal use. even then you should use BT as a preventative as there is NO WAY to pick all the caterpillars off since they are born at a tiny size that's super hard to see until they eat and get bigger.

Also chemical sprays are used all the time on weed and most the shit you buy has chem's on it which I hate and totally disagree with. BT is not a chemical though it's an organic bacteria that has been used for 80 years.

I'd like to see you try to pick every 'pillar off of a 30-100 plant garden of 10 foot tree's. don't be ridiculous.


here is the info on BT for all you naysayers that have no idea what you are talking about

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis


obijohn said:
Will Don't Bug Me work?
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No! does anybody read this thread at all or do they just comment after reading the title?
 
Hi ya'll. thanks for all the great knowledge. This is my first grow, in pots outside in Sac, and I have just found those dang worms in my lovely buds too! Was out there with the flashlight in my mouth while I desperately searching for them chopping critters in my buds in the dark. Squished a bunch of them tonight, and cut the damaged buds and trimmed 'em up and got them drying.

Seems the thing do do is spray the BT early, so guess best thing is to pick as many as I can off. Am I right in that its mostly too late for the BT at this stage so close to harvest? I'm hoping that they can last a few more weeks. Been using the fox farm cha ching on them and they are so frosty they were glittering in the led light and my fingers were all stuck together. Had some solace from the scissor hash after trimming the poor buds. Some were gutted. Got 'em on paper plates drying in the dark guest room as I don't have a way to hang 'em yet. Figured I had another couple weeks to get that set up, then this happened!
 
swanmyst said:
Hi ya'll. thanks for all the great knowledge. This is my first grow, in pots outside in Sac, and I have just found those dang worms in my lovely buds too! Was out there with the flashlight in my mouth while I desperately searching for them chopping critters in my buds in the dark. Squished a bunch of them tonight, and cut the damaged buds and trimmed 'em up and got them drying.

Seems the thing do do is spray the BT early, so guess best thing is to pick as many as I can off. Am I right in that its mostly too late for the BT at this stage so close to harvest? I'm hoping that they can last a few more weeks. Been using the fox farm cha ching on them and they are so frosty they were glittering in the led light and my fingers were all stuck together. Had some solace from the scissor hash after trimming the poor buds. Some were gutted. Got 'em on paper plates drying in the dark guest room as I don't have a way to hang 'em yet. Figured I had another couple weeks to get that set up, then this happened!
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I would be comfortable using BT right up to a week before harvest. I'd go up to 4 days before harvest if I was outside and I saw worms 4 days before harvest. I'd spray with BT in the early morning and then spray with water only two days later to help things along. So the most aggressive would be to mist BT on the morning 4 days before harvest, then mist water only on the morning two days before harvest. From what I've studied, the BT bacteria, which is harmless to us really anyway, is effectively gone within 48 hours with UV exposure. Azamax kills some worms if it hits them directly and is safe up to the day of harvest according to the label, on edible products. Fingers work well, and don't forget that those damaged buds will smoke JUST FINE once they're cleaned up a bit. All that's really damaged is our pride.... :)

Veggie Gardener is the really experienced guy here with the BT regimen. I'd go with his advice.
 
Fuck... BT isn't working for me... I think it's good as a preventative but doesn't work once you've got an infestation.
Actually I'm not so sure if it even works at all. I sprayed down some of my 2 week budding plants twice this week, completely drenched them. I took care in spraying every single bud. and what do I find today? A big fat caterpillar sitting on top of a bud.

I've got 2 plants that are infested and trying to make it through the last 2-3 weeks and I've picked out 40+ caterpillars and sprayed BT. I still keep on finding newly hatched catepillars and one or two newly destroyed bud everyday.

What to do guys? I'm gonna go look for some Spinosad... but from what I understand they both work the same so I'm kind of doubtful.

I need something 100% safe to spray during last weeks and kills within a day.
 
the chlorine in tap water kills a lot of the BT, you should be using bottled/distilled/ROd water. also nothing kills withen a day because it just makes them stop eating. and yes it's better as a preventative. once you are infested it's hard to fight them off.

I like spinosad and then 3 days later BT and then a week off and repeat. been working good so far!
 
Safer makes a tomato and vegetable spray that kills caterpillers. Its OMRI approved and can be used up to the date of harvest. At least for veggies! Its mostly pyrethrins and a little potassium of fatty acids which are both good for your plants. Hope this helps!
 
veggiegardener said:
Honestly, I've never used it to knock down an infestation. I just start spraying in May or June and rarely see a worm.
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Im going to do what you do spray earlier in the season and try to prevent it sooner then later... They almosted kicked my ass but I won the little battle stupid things I hate them. For a second there I thought I had done somthing wrong and was the only one with this problem, till i went to my local store and they said your not the only one with this problem, feww relief
 
Hey there anomilies, you have my shared sympathies for sure!

I've been picking out the worms ever since I first found them a few days ago. Had to pull up the Blue Dream yesterday as it was the last planted and wasn't very big, and the worms seemed to like it best. I just didn't want to take the risk of losing the whole thing.. better to have some, then none.

Next they like the White Widow's.. and like you, I've found some damaged buds every day. As I was trimming, I have found some very small worms buried deep that I'd never see if I was looking for them.
I keep taking the mag glass out hoping the tricomes will be cloudy and amber.. but so far, mostly all clear still. At least the Blue Dream was a hybrid, so not terribly awful to be a few weeks early but I would much rather it had a chance to grow longer.

I hate to pull them up early and so seem to be harvesting bud by bud or branch by branch when there is a series of damaged buds on one, or if I can't find the worm, cuz I know it must be in there somewhere, and I generally do find them.

*sighs* So next year, will start with the BT early and keep it up.. If nothing else, I've learned a lot this first growing year.
 
Hey Swan, don't give up. Keep spraying and hand-picking them. I am checking the buds every single day, but somehow they just keep appearing.

Get in your buds with a tweezer. I had one plant I didn't really care about and didn't think to check for caterpillars. It was still healthy since I last saw it 3 days ago (outward appearance alone you wouldn't think there were caterpillars) but today I found the caterpillars completely destroyed the plant. So if you give up the battle now it'll never make it through harvest. The eggs are timed to hatch right when your plants are in mid flower. Those damn bastards...

Other than drenching the buds in neem / BT, I thought of something that might work?

Electrocution.. will this work? lol.. hopefully it's not a dumb idea.
Hoping it will kill the caterpillars but not affect the plant.
My plants aren't that huge so I can submerge one cola at a time in a bucket of water and run electricity through it?

How big of a battery do you think I'll need to kill the caterpillars but pose no risk to myself or the THC?
 
LOL!

Plants can die from electrocution.

Use 240 to make it quick and painless....

Better to mix Bt and dip the plant in it. 3 teaspoons in five gallons of water should do it.

This should be 100% effective against live caterpillars.

Spraying sometimes misses worms that have hatched and burrowed inside the bud.

Spraying regularly insures they'll eat some Bt before invading the khola.
 
anomolies said:
Hey Swan, don't give up. Keep spraying and hand-picking them. I am checking the buds every single day, but somehow they just keep appearing.

Get in your buds with a tweezer. I had one plant I didn't really care about and didn't think to check for caterpillars. It was still healthy since I last saw it 3 days ago (outward appearance alone you wouldn't think there were caterpillars) but today I found the caterpillars completely destroyed the plant. So if you give up the battle now it'll never make it through harvest. The eggs are timed to hatch right when your plants are in mid flower. Those damn bastards...

Other than drenching the buds in neem / BT, I thought of something that might work?

Electrocution.. will this work? lol.. hopefully it's not a dumb idea.
Hoping it will kill the caterpillars but not affect the plant.
My plants aren't that huge so I can submerge one cola at a time in a bucket of water and run electricity through it?

How big of a battery do you think I'll need to kill the caterpillars but pose no risk to myself or the THC?
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lol. For some reason I thought of the dude getting electro-shocked to death in the green mile when I read this.
 
anomolies said:
Fuck... BT isn't working for me... I think it's good as a preventative but doesn't work once you've got an infestation.
Actually I'm not so sure if it even works at all. I sprayed down some of my 2 week budding plants twice this week, completely drenched them. I took care in spraying every single bud. and what do I find today? A big fat caterpillar sitting on top of a bud.

I've got 2 plants that are infested and trying to make it through the last 2-3 weeks and I've picked out 40+ caterpillars and sprayed BT. I still keep on finding newly hatched catepillars and one or two newly destroyed bud everyday.

What to do guys? I'm gonna go look for some Spinosad... but from what I understand they both work the same so I'm kind of doubtful.

I need something 100% safe to spray during last weeks and kills within a day.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same general area as you and noticed the first worm a week ago. Who here has used Monterey gardens Spinosad? I used it Thursday, soaking the buds. Friday morning more worms and the top of a big cola was severed from the plant. Sprayed again. Today I lost a whole branch and saw several worms, including a baby one. All the other ones I saw were close to an inch long

Hydro shop guy says it takes several days for them to ingest the stuff and dehydrate. For those that use it, that seem to be the case? I have 2 weeks at least to go and don't like the buzz the plant provised right now...all clear trics for the most part and the buzz isn't stoney. It's a very intense head high without the relaxing part and just seems kind of rough

Guess I wanna know...should I keep using Spinosad every few days and hope for the best, and wait out the 2 + weeks. Or chop and cut my losses.




edit: unless they are outside the bud I just cant see 'em. I went thru a bud yesterday and saw nothing, a big fat one was there today.
 
Today I was on a trip somewhere and I noticed ants in my car.

Then it hit me.

Ants will devour anything in it's path. If you could collect a bunch of ants by baiting them with sweets, discovering a nest, or collecting ant queens and brooding them, you could unleash an army of ants onto your plants and they will drag those caterpillars out and eat them alive.

I think it's a pretty solid idea because there are many different size ants and the smaller ones are able to get deep inside the buds. Now whether or not the ants will panic and run around instead of killing caterpillars is another story.
I'm thinking keeping queen ants in a terranium near your plants would be a better idea but that would time, so maybe next summer.

I'm going to try and look for some ants tomorrow. This BT shit ain't workin and my hydro stores don't carry spinosad.
 
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