Chaos Catalunya wrote "Mine got caned by caterpillars, then rain, then rotted, then stolen and eventually recovered 500m away in a torrential storm at 5am and survived a Police visit mid trimming, re the adventures with the theft. Still turned out a great smoke, as you describe."

It's lines like this that makes ICmag.com a great place to spend an hour or two of reading. I know this is the wrong forum and the wrong thread, but I'd appreciate hearing from other outdoor growers on how they combat caterpillars, especially the ones that live in buds that are in the early and middle stages of growth. The caterpillars around here are small, light green and though they don't seem to eat very much, but I almost always get mold inside the bud due to caterpillar shit and damage they caused. I haven't sprayed anything on the plants (I'm really hesitant to spray anything on flowering plants) and usually try to pick them out one by one, but they are hard to see and I cause lots of damage (bruising) trying to grab the little thin green bastards. I usually end up losing about 1/2 the yield on many of the subtropical plants I grow but much less on the faster finishing, modern hybrids as I think the fuelly, strong smell helps repels most of them. I will try and spray the plants in early flowering this year...please suggest any natural and safe methods you have used successfully that I could mix and prepare myself, I'm not interested in using harmful chemicals and as these plants are grown guerrilla style in various little plots in the bush, I can't use netting. I could grow just the fast finishing varieties, but depending on the type of weather we have each year, I find it best to grow a variety of thin and wide leaved strains. I also have big problems with scale and meally buds that I also hand pick off/scrape off/squash. Any advice welcome.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by 99%

Chaos Catalunya wrote "Mine got caned by caterpillars, then rain, then rotted, then stolen and eventually recovered 500m away in a torrential storm at 5am and survived a Police visit mid trimming, re the adventures with the theft. Still turned out a great smoke, as you describe."

It's lines like this that makes ICmag.com a great place to spend an hour or two of reading. I know this is the wrong forum and the wrong thread, but I'd appreciate hearing from other outdoor growers on how they combat caterpillars, especially the ones that live in buds that are in the early and middle stages of growth. The caterpillars around here are small, light green and though they don't seem to eat very much, but I almost always get mold inside the bud due to caterpillar shit and damage they caused. I haven't sprayed anything on the plants (I'm really hesitant to spray anything on flowering plants) and usually try to pick them out one by one, but they are hard to see and I cause lots of damage (bruising) trying to grab the little thin green bastards. I usually end up losing about 1/2 the yield on many of the subtropical plants I grow but much less on the faster finishing, modern hybrids as I think the fuelly, strong smell helps repels most of them. I will try and spray the plants in early flowering this year...please suggest any natural and safe methods you have used successfully that I could mix and prepare myself, I'm not interested in using harmful chemicals and as these plants are grown guerrilla style in various little plots in the bush, I can't use netting. I could grow just the fast finishing varieties, but depending on the type of weather we have each year, I find it best to grow a variety of thin and wide leaved strains. I also have big problems with scale and meally buds that I also hand pick off/scrape off/squash. Any advice welcome.

Use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to control caterpillars.

The sell it everywhere.

[ChaosCatalunya]

^^^^ This... BT is a naturally occurring bacteria that causes no harm and can be sprayed on gardens in flower

You can also use a light trap against moths, marketed as a bug zapper iirc, sitting in the garden at night waiting for customers for my big game hunting program you are constantly amazed by the sheer number of moths that are flying about and how you grow to love bats...

Moths and their caterpillars seem to like fruity tasty plants more than others, I spent more time manually chasing the fuckers through summer than I did watering. Malawi is fruitier than most, so got more attention than the Panama nearby

Stolen Malawis, recovered at 4am in a thunderstorm, eternal thanks to P

[catalysthunter]

I am going to attempt some of these in N.Cal what type of soil composition does it like?