My ladies have fallen victim to these pesky little bastards... I had 3 females growing outdoors and two of them have fallen to caterpillars. The first sign of them was when I noticed a few brown spots on my flowers. When I inspected closely, the brown infected area of the flower just pulled out as if it were dead. Inside, I found the brown sandy shit (yes, it is poop) and the little green caterpillars. I ended up finding several more (20?) on the same plant. I ended up pulling her that day (two weeks early) and salvaging what I could... In the cutting/trimming process I found easily another 30-40 caterpillars. They buried themselves deep inside the flowers and stems. It was two days later I found them on my other flowering female. I decided to let this one go and try to battle the bugs. I got some of Ed Rosenthal's "Zero Tolerance" and completely drenched my two plants. While I haven't found as many caterpillars on the outside of the flowers since spraying, they are still deep within the flowers and causing severe damage. It has only been 3 days since I treated them, so come Sunday I'm going to rinse the shit out of her and pull her too.... Try to once again salvage what I can and get all those little bastards out. My third plant, which has been a slow bloomer (at least 30 days behind the other two) doesn't seem to be infected. I have searched her daily (and it's easier because her flowers are not yet thick and dense) and have so far found no caterpillars. I think I am going to hit her with the Zero again just to be safe. This sucks.... It was my first outdoor grow and things seemed to be going so well up until about two weeks ago. My flowers have been severely damaged and I have found a new passionate hatred toward caterpillars...
I heard caterpillars die because they simply eat the THC and get too baked and die? But my friends plant had those small green caterpillars, almost so little they don't deserve the normal title of caterpillar. I've always thought to prevent them is to put a small mesh around the plant, like a screen, or Solex to block it out, or greenhouse plants. I heard lady bugs love to eat caterpillars though, just the lady bugs are annoying to get off at harvest, thats what I hear, the lady bugs are friendly to the plant.
I helped my buddy trim a sweet purple that he grew outdoors and it turned out to be a caterpillar holocaust. We must have found about 30 of em.
if your growing outside its probably a good idea to do some preventive maintnace to ensure these problems dont arise. definatly hit the one that looks ok with what you have to keep them off of it! good luck
Those are the same ones that got me. I have killed well over 100 of them between two plants in the past two weeks. I harvested both infected plants, lost a lot of my hard work.... But I was able to salvage some bud, so it's not a total loss. The one non-infected plants still looks good. I have been inspecting it closely daily and still no sign of caterpillars. I'm going to hit it with the Zero again just to be on the safe side. It's amazing how much damage these little fuckers did....... Even on some of the buds that looked fine. When I cut them from the stem and opened them up I would find brown mushy dead bud and holes all throughout the stem/stock. Devastating little pests.
When experiencing an attack by caterpillars, use an insecticide containing "Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt", this is an organic control for catepillars. This is also the same chemical used in mosquito dunks for aquatic applications. It can be found at many local stores and garden centers in the pesticide sections. This can also be used to control fungus gnat larve in pots.
Can you specify any brands that you know work well? This "Zero Tolerance" stuff I got didn't seem to do the trick...... Which really sucks, as I paid $24 for it.
I see this on Amazon for 8-10 dollars from several retailers, you should find the product at nurserys garden centers and any stores that have gardening sections. The brand doesn't matter as it is all the same spore. Just make sure it says Bacillus thuringiensis, this is the Genus and species of the spore. One brand I saw is Bonide. I am not trying to advocate this particular brand as they are all the same if in the same concentration.
Cool, man. Thanks for the help. I'm going to need it, as today I found the first (and so far only) caterpillar on my third plant. I still have time to react on this one (she's been a slow bloomer) so thanks a lot.