caterpillars

i cant get rid of these caterpillars on my outdoors crops... once i see the dead spots on the bud its too late.. i have no idea where theyre coming from or what theyre breeding on..

can someone recomend a good caterpillar spray that will 1. kill them/ 2. keep them from returning for a while/ 3. not leave a smell on the plant. these are the worst pest ive dealt with. they get up to half an inch, and get inside the bud and make it rot. this year its probably too late but i wanna be ready to deal with them . the last thing i need is them coming to thr indoor plants

caterpillers

caterpillers

I had some on my indoor grow, but I got lucky. Soon after they got in & got busy eating, small black wasps showed up. (You can't keep anything out of this house, it's old, real old) The wasps cleaned up those caterpillers in less than a week. They aren't aggressive to people or the cats, they stayed in the grow room and walked all over the plants looking for aphids, thrips, anything. That was the end of all bugs in that room. I tried to research them, but the only name I found was Small Black Wasps. They aren't as big as a Yellow Jacket, less than 3/4" long and jet black all over, no stripes. They were good little friends. Maybe you could find some. Hope this helps.

Spinosad and Bacillus thuringiensis are two effective organic caterpillar killers. They are most effective on young caterpillars.

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/spinosadgen.html

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/btgen.html

Both BTI and spinosad are super toxic to bees though so be careful if that is the route you go, please don't poison any bees

Spinosad every third day until you stop seeing them and every 5-6 days after that. Put up sticky traps to catch the moths before they can lay eggs.