Yuko â?¹ Pests

[catbuds]

Damned Este, I'm so sorry. Your girls were so BEAUTIFUL! Is there a lot of damage? I can tell they're not cutworms, horn worm because of the damage being more centralized rather than stems (cutworms) or starting on outside leaf edge (horn worms, most others). What the damage resembles is the cabbage worm. Sm & fuzzy, about 1/2", creamy greenish white, larva of cabbage butterfly/moth, day flight , NOT nocturnal. Sm white butterfly with a sm black spot on each back wing towards the bottom lower part. Their favorite food is cabbage, but they're not that picky, they'll munch anything, little bastards.

The damage fits. If the catapiller description fits, & you've seen thoes little white butterflys, post back asap.
~~~~~~~~~PEACE~~~~~~~~~

[Shovelhandle]

Safe and organic pest control.
Safer Products has a caterpillar soap, I believe. I use their fungus soap and insecticidal soap.
Tobacco, garlic, cumin, hot pepper.. Add one or more of these ingredients to water and steep a tea. Strain, add a couple of drops of dish detergent and spray over and under everywhere. Rinse everything off real good before harvest.

[Esteban1]

Thanks man, been picking them off here & there. The damage is fairly sparse at this point. Think I should spray?

[catbuds]

Oh yeah, the bud rot thing. How many bud (%) seem to be affected? When you posted about the hard all night rain a while back I was concerned about that. I figured your buds would be dense enough to not be able to dry on the inside & this might happen. My questions are about your grow area. If you ran a line above your girls, got a very large sheet of clear or white plastic (I get it on a roll, 20X100'), put the plastic on the line over the girls like a tent, slide it all the way back to one side to uncover in good weather, then slide to back over them before the rain, weighting the edges down very well, would that be visible to prying eyes? My next thought would be 5gal buckets & drag them into the garage, porch or other cover before a rain. I know, smaller plants, less harvest, more work, but hey, no bud rot. You might want to consider at least a few in buckets for next year, with the east coast being what it is for torrential rains & hurricanes. Hurricane last fall took 1/2 of my garage roof, severely damaged house roof, took out 7 large trees & put them on top of my well & rotted all my buds. Seems to get worse every year.

Shovel gave you good advice. If you can make a positive ID on thoes nasty little buggers, call your local ag extention office & see what they recommend. But what ever that would be, I'm sure it would be a poison, so wash well before harvest. Might as well have a full arsenal. If you can't narrow down an ID, put one in a baggie & take it into local ag office, tell them they're destroying your whole garden. So close & now this. Wish I there to help.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PEACE!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~

[Esteban1]

CB, please, freaking me out..... seriously lol. Been a farmer for quite some time now. To answer your question only a very, very small amount of rot v caterpillars. Like 3 -5 nice sized colas down to beasties & maybe 3 sep flowers down to rot. It's part of growing, "acceptable loss"! Reminding me of senior high teacher expecting perfection. Truly, all's well.

[MrGrowBig]

I just got the same problem here on the west coast last week. They took over the entire GDP plant in a few days. I have what are called corn earworms. They dig down into the middle of the bud and feed and poop all over the inside. I had to cut around 5 good sized colas in half to remove all of the poop they left. I kept finding them here and there so I just sprayed with Safer brand caterpillar killer. Its 100% organic, and it kills all of those nasty pests in about 2 days..

Once you find some, you have AT LEAST 5x more, so don't take your chances. Just spray once with the organic spray, remove all the poop infested buds, and it will be over.

Kill any moths in the area, and check for new eggs every few days so they dont come back.

[Jbone77]

Good advice MrGrowBig, suggested the exact same organic remedy a few days ago when his problem started. He doesnt want to use it, would suggest creating a new tequila with a couple of em in it at this point to help offset the losses.

[catbuds]

Anything organic rocks my world hate, did I say HATE chemicals. Este, you probably haven't noticed, but I'm kind of a worry wart. Your girls are so beautiful & I was freakin'! You scared me first, so now we're even! Hey, that rhymes! But seriously, would the tent thing be do-able. Since its nearly harvest, maybe next year? Bud rot & fungus blows man! Glad everything's cool now. Stop scaring me! LOL!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PEACE!~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Jbone77]

THCuila would be a great name, fat green worm in the bottom, give it a green tint, put a cork in it shaped like a big fat bud. Make millions.

[catbuds]

Yeah Este! What Jbone said! LMAO! I'll buy a bottle & save you the worm, you can bite its little head off & call that sweet revenge! Good one Jbone!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~PEACE!~~~~~~~~~~~~~