HELP! Budworms close to harvest time

[Sven]

Hi,
am a newbie on my first grow. Auto-flower seed started budding at 6 weeks, now at week 11. I split time outdoors/indoors based on weather, etc. I noticed a budworm 3 weeks ago, cut off the bud he was eating, and started spraying BT weekly. Due to seeing occasional moths outside, I gave it a good inspection and spotted a bunch of tiny green eggs on Sunday. I picked off a dozen of them. My last BT spray was Monday. On Tuesday morning, I spotted 2 tiny worms repelling off the plant like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. I understand that they only die after eating a BT-soaked leaf, so I am hoping that they are leaving because it's inedible and/or they were dying. I found another one repelling off this morning. (FYI -Just for the hell of it, I sprayed him with Trifecta (neem oil) to see if that killed him. After 2 soakings it did not. I put him on a leaf with another egg or two and he eventually died - though he looked to be eating the smaller egg - see 3rd pic)
My trichomes are just starting to turn amber (<5%), but I was hoping to get another few weeks of growth before harvest.
I am really afraid of:
a) Weekly BT sprays affecting the taste of the bud (it smells like paint thinner)
b) weekly BT sprays not being enough
c) how many more of those buggers are still buried in my bud that I cant see

As a precaution, I have moved the plant back indoors (no moths inside). Please take a look at my pics (I used a dime and blue toothpick for scale) and confirm my suspicions and actions thus far....and most importantly....what do I do now?
Thanks in advance,
Sven

[SirSmksAlot]

Hey sven. You should never spray any insecticide on your plants in flower. Your buds are for sure going to taste off. Natural preditors are your best bet outside during flower. You can apply those sprays during veg to help prevent an infestation during flower. Personally id flush the hell out of it, harvest it and see what happens. You might be able to make some extracts if it tastes too bad.

[SirSmksAlot]

I just looked up bt and did some reading. Other growers are saying that they use it right up till the lady week before harvest. I also read that if they've moved into the buds they will be really hard to kill and will cause mold. When you dry you might start seeing some worms hanging from silk coming out of the buds. I've never had this problem so I hope someone else chimes in with some suggestions

[Stickers]

Sounds like you have web worms. Also sounds like you discovered them way late in your grow.
I went through that last year with caterpillars, it sucked. I agree with smks alot, don't spray your buds. You may want to read up on that to determine if they're safe to smoke.
So back to your problem. What I did was go leaf by leaf and bud by bud hand picking bugs and scraping of eggs. Also you may find poop (sand size dark specks) to brush off. It took about a week to go through 3 plants about 5 ft. tall. I did still find a couple buried in buds when I harvested though.
This year I found web worms ( what you're describing). What I found first were a number of small pin holes on a few leaves here and there. Looking closer I started finding leaves that have 2 or 3 fingers wrapped together. When you check those you find that they are kinda glued with a worm inside. The ones I found moved really fast and did repel off my finger on a web like a spider.

luckily no buds yet so I've been inspecting plants daily and have found 7 or 8. I'm not sure if spraying would work since they wrap themselves up in leaves. So keep checking buds and look for deformed leaves. Best of luck.

[Rwise]

Let me start by saying that I have not used this on an MJ plant yet, I have what we call bag worms, well they are eastern tent caterpillars. There are tents everywhere this year, and I fight them in the garden. My brother was looking at my girls, and said I have a cure for the bag worms. He uses "wasp and hornet spray", and he gave me a can to try, just hit the bag with a small shot, and the worms die! It has not harmed any plant I have sprayed so far, I have lots of dead nest now!