Hello ALL! Have a rather large caterpillar issue for a rather small crop of 2 plants... Yesterday, I returned home from 2 weeks away and discovered that the plant ready for harvest has been descimated by caterpillars. I know it was foolish to travel at harvest time, but had no choice and left my babies to be cared for by my neighbor. When I got home I immediately went to say hello to the girls and noticed that Tina #1 (I call my plants Tina who was close to being ready for harvest when I left, had much darker hairs then what I would have expected. I knew I had to harvest, so I plucked off a bud from the base and did the microwave method to give her a try and get in tune before going in with the clippers. I have to say, she smokes very nice. Well, when I went in to cut I noticed 2 caterpillars on lower leaves. I didn't have a problem with caterpillars last year, so had no idea what damage they could do until I cut off the top cola. It was then that I noticed the "red" hairs were not all living matter, but rather half the plant was already dry and there was caterpillar poop everywhere. I spent 7 hours yesterday researching online and slowly going through the plant to examine the problem as I cut. I have cut about 40% of the plant so far, going through each bud and tossing the dead matter in the trash, brushing off poop or tossing buds infested with poop, tossing buds growing near poop infested areas, and sadly crushing my beautiful buds along the way. Strangely the caterpillars seemed to do the most damage below the biggest buds (mostly, but not completely sparing them), and I think I have them all picked off. I have also been wearing gloves as I work and only saving buds that I can get the poop off of. My questions are: (note: I grow for personal use only) 1- is the dried matter mold? Tina #1 still smells great and when i pull off the dead matter the rest of the bud looks good and is moist to the touch 2- can I dry my buds and watch carefully for signs of mold or is this foolish? 3- What to do about Tina #2? She has about 3 weeks left before harvest so I sprayed her with BT last night. Only noticed poop on one bud in the middle of the plant and a few bite marks in fan leaves near the poop, but have not seen any caterpillars or dead matter on her. I thoroughly checked the top cola and no signs of caterpillars. She is about 6ft tall. I don't mind doing all this work to yield about 20% of the plant, because as I said, I only have two plants, this is for personal use, and I have put so much love into her that tossing the whole plant really pains me. The pics are: 1- dried bud 2- signs of where the caterpillars got their lunch 3- ok looking bud still on the stalk
hey im in same position, close to harvest found an odd loooking bud at the very bottom branch, cut it only to find a caterpillar, but only one and on a small ass bud, makes me worried there are more hidden away slowly doing damage. all my buds look healthy tho, and not dying like your picks, but some leaves on mine have black specs on them is that caterpillar poop or something else. you mind explaining what it looks like
thanks for replying...I have found it so odd that no one has anything to say about my relatively big issue here's what I can share...as most people say, if you can see one, then bet there are 5 more. I have picked about 20 off my plant. If the black specks are like teeny tiny bits the size of a this "." then it is probably poop. Could be eggs, but not sure if they are black or not. If you see poop, there are more caterpillars, especially if you found it somewhere other than where you found the first cat. I went away for 9 days (couldn't be helped, family stuff) and within that time they destroyed my pour Tina. I have tried salvaging some buds, but I am paranoid that they will have mold. Pretty much my entire plant is gone. Strangely the other plant (different strain) looks good and still have a few weeks until harvest. So...start checking your plant frequently throughout the day. I found 2 cats on the half trimmed one at different times this morning when giving her a once over. This is after I pulled about 8-10 off yesterday. Start where you see the poop, then follow the leaf into the bud. Sacrifice her beauty and as gently as possible open her up and look around. I found tons of shit in most of my buds. If the first bud is clear, move on to the next suspicious area. I'm telling you, better to lose 20% then the whole thing. These little shits are good hiders and good shitters and have incredibly good appetites!
ya im gona take a good look tomorrow fortunately they all looked 100% except that one towards the bottom none of the other buds look touched it may be the start of the invasion tho
I've had the exact same problem. I'm pretty sure the caterpillars are called budworms. They decimated my top 2 main colas but didnt touch too much of the lower buds. They burrow into your nugs and eat anything in their way. They shit in your buds too. Make sure you check on the plant daily and thoroughly inspect it. The dead bud and caterpillar shit makes a prime environment for mold/fungus, especially after it rains. Next time dont wait until late flower to apply insecticide. I use spinosad. The latest I would reccomend applying insecticide is two weeks into flower and no later. And above all make sure the buds aren't in a humid/wet environment.
last thing im sad today i just went out and checked a leave with a bite mark and sure enough brown dead looking weed cut the sem from below it and above it (got a good bud out of it) but no worm inside brown piece
man - I wish I had that issue. Not sure about whether moving the plant will help...Just check on her multiple times a day, pick them off, and cut off any dead parts. I checked on Tina #2 today and she was fine in the morning and tonight I found 2 eaten fan leaves near the top. I am going to take a better look tomorrow, but I might have to harvest her, even though I was thinking of letting her go another few weeks. Anyone have any thoughts about doing a slow harvest? meaning, Take any stem that has signs of cats and beginning to dry, working from the top down? I'm not sure what to do...she just doesnt seem crystally enough yet. I started with 5 seeds (first time starting any plant from seed One didn't make it past seedling. Two ended up being male and then I had my two girls. Tina #1 began to bud about 3 weeks earlier than Tina #2. She was shorter, stockier and strong as anything...now she is mostly going in the garbage, which is breaking my heart Tina #2 is a lot taller, over 6ft. A little lankier and has rich green leaves. She's been flowering for about 4 weeks...filled with bright white hairs...I don't want to have to harvest yet, but after seeing what those cats can do to a plant, I don't want to risk it. Anyone have any thoughts, ideas, saving grace's up their sleeves?
I'm going to try to answer as many of your questions as I can. 1) The dried up buds aren't mold. That's just where the caterpillars munched through the stem that brings water to that part of the bud so it slowly dries. It it looks grey, mushy, or fuzzy, then toss it. If it's just crunchy then it's ok. The caterpillar just pre-dried a few test buds for you. 2) If you pull the healthy bud and make sure to dry it in a room with plenty of air flow, mold shouldn't be an issue. The mold becomes a problem when the popped in buds become moist from a storm or morning dew. Then it becomes a bacteria breeding ground. The longer the poop sits in your wet buds the more chance of mold you have. 3) Just keep doing what you're doing for plant #2. Spray twice a week and keep looking inside the buds for signs of worms and also look for munched off pistils. Thats a good indication of infestation too. If you start getting mold, then consider harvesting but I'd let her go as long as you can. Nobody likes immature weed. You could lose as much weight chopping early as you would from the worms and mold. Good luck. Spray the BT weekly next season and spray your whole property too. Kill the mommies before they have a chance to lay eggs in the buds. Oh, and the dark specs ARE poop. The eggs are yellowish.
I wouldnt smoke any of that if I were you. Caterpillar frass is loaded with clostridium. There are many polyphagous lepidoptera (moths, butterflies) that like cannabis. Not just tobacco budworms. Caterpillar feces actually inhibit mold. They're essentially manure, just like from cattle.
MJMAMA - you are amazing! Thank you so much for validating some of my assumptions and for showing me the way...I knew it couldn t be mold, but didn't want to risk it. Sadly the cats pretty much "pre dried" 85% of my plant, and now they have all dried in less than 48 hours. I gave a little spray today of BT and don't plan on doing it again before I harvest. So far just the little munchies in 3 leaves on Tina #2, but I have a feeling I will find more tomorow. I will spray the garden this year...funny, last year I just had one plant and put her in the ground. this year I kept them in pots because I wasn't sure about sex and I have had a lot more problems...foolish to think I could do better than Mother Earth Thank you again for taking the time to explain.
thanks for replying...I think I mainly had cabbage loopers, but some baby cats did look brown, so maybe the budworms got in. apologies if I am naive when asking...what is "caterpillar frass"...shit? I tossed over 50% of the plant already and have crushed most of the remaining buds to high hell looking for poop and pulling out anything with a trace of it. I also tossed most of the dried out bud caused by the munching, so I think I am gonna risk it and give the 1/4 I end up with a try. Who knows...I might be to paranoid to smoke it in the end. gratitude for everyone who is offering their wisdom to my newbie dilemma
Frass is just a fancy word for insect shit. Just incase it wasn't clear, bud worms are the same thing as caterpillars. You'll see them referred to as either name. Same pest. Hopefully the brown ones were dying.
one more question...last year I let the buds hang on stalks for about 6-8 days, then trimmed, then did the curing process in jars...buds came out great! since these guys got crispy in two days...would the best bet be to trim now and cure like usual or are there other precautions before putting them in a jar?