Help caterpillars

[Cronk]

Woke up this morning to find caterpillars everywhere. no apparent plant damage but droppings or eggs everywhere, picking off various sizes of caterpillars.

I guess it's just a matter of time before they eat everything

What can be done? 2 weeks to go

Thanks

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[Cronk]

Found the post on them. Ordered BT spray. It'll be here tomorrow. I hope it can wait. fuckers

 

[Rwise]

Pick off and smash all you can find until the spray gets there.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

That's all you can do like Rwise says. I pick them off, my hubby will blow them plants with his blower not blast them directly but do a " sweep motion "

 

[FunkyButtLovin]

No damage? If they're shitting, they're eating. Look at the leaf that he is devouring in the picture. You'll find a lot more of that. They will also eat through stems and kill buds, top plants, etc. I had a major bout with them in my indoor grow early this summer. They were most likely born on the plant you find them on, when they are big and fat that means they have been eating for days or weeks even. They only stop eating long enough to molt and start eating again,. They do this 4 times before they are ready to go make the change and begin pupation. Most of the time you will only find one caterpillar per plant but if you have lots of tops you may get more than one as each top might kinda look like a whole new plant to a bug from above I guess.

 

[Gingerbeard]

I shake plants. If you can get your plant on a flat, neutral surface like concrete, tilt it to better than 45° and give a shake. Then go for a good stomp. But wipe your shoes off before going back into your house.

 

[EthnicColeslaw]

I can attest to that to them attacking every top, like clockwork each big top of my trained thick cola sticky “best” Indica plant got hit and the colas were thick enough that that caterpillars never came out.
The poop was exclusively on the inside somehow and I was struggling with being only to tend to my plants once every week or so. They were about a 90 miles from me.

Also the poop attracts mold.... it was a rough couple nights of wet trimming to get a through look at it for bud rot and caterpillars before hanging and it was painful throwing all away a lot of bud.

Oh well haha, my first grow pest was termites and my second grow was caterpillars!

 

[Cronk]

I'm moving them out of the tent to the sun. They were brought in from outside so this is how it happened. We'll spray them and pick through them, make sure they're clear I was doing them for a friend, he'll finish them up now

Now I have to clean the tent before I start anything. How is that done? I've never had bugs because I only grow inside in the winter

 

[crucialbunny]

Don't know where you live, but here in California every single outdoor grower I have talked to is currently dealing with them. There's a little tan colored moth that lays a single egg on different buds. They seem to be attracted to strains with a pine aroma profile I've noticed. Luckily I have only found a few of them. The eggs hatch and the caterpillar feeds on the inside of the bud until it gets like a 1/3 inch long and then comes out to munch on leaves. The ones inside the bud are much smaller than the one pictured here.

 

[Cronk]

I pulled some tiny ones out of a couple buds before I handed them off to go. There was poop on every part of the plant and I found larger ones. I hope there are only a few but I think it will be a chore to find them all. At least I guess they don't seem to damage all at once, if they are picked off daily.

 

[Gingerbeard]

Cronk Wasn't there something in a Cheech and Chong movie about smoking caterpillar shit?

 

[Rwise]

EthnicColeslaw do tell what the termites did. I have termites here and all I find them in is dead wood.

 

[Driller]

I rembember the bit where they smoke dog shit but dont remember caterpillar shit might have to give it another watch its been a while.

 

[Gingerbeard]

Uh, they sprinkle it on a bowl like kief. Yeaaahhh... That's the ticket! Solvent free extract.

 

[EthnicColeslaw]

Rwise I suddenly found them absolutely covering the bottom of every fabric pot outside. I was growing in an dry arid area and I attracted them from somewhere.
I googled it and found left unchecked they will eventually burrow into your stalk or find your existing older plant’s “Woody” stalk. Eventually the plant gets stressed for a couple days and then falls over when they eat through it.

Steps to take is no dead wood or old lumber lying on the ground near your grow and throw some rings of diatomaceous earth around your grow if it don’t rain often. Best thing was too place my fabric pots on cinderblocks or paving stones with plenty of air gaps between stones.