Questions about caterpillars that cali outdoor growers deal with

I don't know how wide spread some species are, or if some species are only found in certain regions...

....but I'm curious if there is specific specie(s) of caterpillars (or worms?) we northern california outdoor growers have issues with? Or is there a wide variety of them?

And are these caterpillars (assuming that's what they are) typically getting onto the plants by crawling up the stalk??......Or is it more likely that moths/butterflies are laying eggs on the plants and the larvae/baby caterpillars are hatching directly on the plants and start to gorge themselves?.....Or do both scenarios play out equally?



Last year was my first grow...Out of the four plants/strains I grew only two of them had some minor issues with, what I'm assuming to be, caterpillars. Those two plants also both so happened to be the most "sativa" out of the four strains/plants I grew (Tangieland and Slymer), not sure if that's typical or coincidence.

It was the sort of damage where I'd randomly spot a brown/dry/dead spot in one of my buds, then once I got digging/cutting into that spot I'd find the damage went a bit deeper and typically some spots of mold(?) or fungus(?) growing in there too. Only once did I catch a little green guy and squished em', all other times I never saw or caught the critters.


I plan on using BT this time around.



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BT is effective, diatomaceous earth seems to help with moths too, but isn't a magic bullet. Bug zappers are supposedly a great way to keep moths off your plants if you don't want to spray or dust and moth decoys placed near & above the tops of your plants also seem to help keep moths away. You don't need to bother with any of that other stuff if you use BT

The moths lay eggs on undersides of leaves, at least that is what I've encountered in the past... The moths in my area seem to be white in color

Then they hatch and the cats will eat there way into the buds, when they shit inside of your buds that then turns to mold/rot...

Im gonna try maybe setting up more feeding stations for humming birds this year, i heard that they eat them. Also ill throw out bird seed around the garden... Ive seen birds catching the moths and eating them....

I spray BT on full moons and spinosad on quarter moons

Best deterrent is: Ya gotta watch your plants more closely!!!

There are a couple of worms I have dealt with. One I call cutworms, the green hairless caterpillar looking worm. They bother my plants during the last weeks of flower. BT works great as other have said. I've tried picking them off, but that means a flashlight at night and I could find up to 8 or so on each plant each night and still not find them all. That is why I use BT. I should note, some plant seem more susceptible than others. One year, all 3 OG Kush got them real bad, my other plants weren't bothered. Last year I grew several pure Sativa and never saw a worm or used any BT.
Another kind of worm I have found is during preflower stretch. On the crowns, one or two leaves will be twisted up almost like trying to make a cigar and stuck together. Peel them apart and there is a tiny worm in there, about 2-3 mm long. I found about 20 of them on one Indica. This is usually around late July or early August.
Hope that helps.
Peace, God bless

The suckers also turn what ever color bud they are munching on...
Ive pulled out purple caterpillars out of purple buds!!

I deal with snails/slugs we call them. They'll absolutely crawl up your plant and eat the leaves completely off, and be on the top of the main stalk with just slime and stalk left, no green. I use beer, and snail slug bait and still have a helluva time. They will even get on older budding plants if you ain't careful. This is my biggest enemies of all!!! There damn near impossible to wipe out

Teddybrae said:

Best deterrent is: Ya gotta watch your plants more closely!!!

Click to expand...

Exactly I was outside last nite at 3am looking for slugs on my plants or on the containers. Found a big one on the pot on his way to greenland, had to squish his ass. Your 100% right you gotta watch plants closely really no matter whats eating at them

I'll be on the lookout for caterpillars also, thread is great!!!

wvkindbud38 said:

I deal with snails/slugs we call them. They'll absolutely crawl up your plant and eat the leaves completely off, and be on the top of the main stalk with just slime and stalk left, no green. I use beer, and snail slug bait and still have a helluva time. They will even get on older budding plants if you ain't careful. This is my biggest enemies of all!!! There damn near impossible to wipe out

Click to expand...

Sprinkle Diatemcious Earth around your containers, Or even Salt?

Noonin NorCal said:

Sprinkle Diatemcious Earth around your containers, Or even Salt?

Click to expand...

Ive got both of those, I've had one helluva time with these little leaf sucking sons of bitches. Ive put beer and snail bait everywhere for 2yrs. There hell on the smaller plants. I'll go try that thanks alot.

Trichogramma spp. have been used for control of lepidopteran pests for many years. They can be considered the Drosophila of the parasitoid world, as they have been used for inundative releases and much understanding today comes from experiments with these wasps. Nine species of Trichogramma are produced commercially in insectaries around the world, with 30 countries releasing them. Trichogramma wasps are used for control on numerous crops and plants; these include cotton, sugarcane, vegetables, sugarbeets, orchards, and forests as well as Cannabis.
The most commonly used species for biological control are T. atopovirilia, T. brevicapillum, T. deion, T. exiguum, T. fuentesi, T. minutum, T. nubilale, T. platneri, T. pretiosum, and T. thalense.
We used T pretiosum, T minutum, T evanescens, for several decades, there may be even better ones available today for Cannabis. We also used Predatory bug Macrolophus pygmaeus to a lesser degree.
I used BT, it works best the younger the caterpillars are, spray BT on the plants as soon as eggs are found, or the day before they hatch or better weekly if you commonly have problems, your local agricultural station will inform farmers when the moth pests are in the air. (emergence)
It also helps if you ID the specific pest caterpillar so you can use the best control. You also need to monitor your plants continually to find and deal with caterpillar eggs, or the damage to leaves from the smaller newly hatched eggs as soon as possible.

-SamS

Ferminated garlic / cayenne spray will help big time. kills and creates a barrier ..

I'm an organic outdoor grower in the hills of the Ozarks..

Where I live we have lots of bug issues. The ones that cause the worst damage are the large brown grasshoppers, and even worse, the moths which lay eggs that hatch into caterpillars.

the caterpillars munch their way into your precious buds and then shit in there.
This is the main cause of the dreaded "bud rot"..

I had tried dusting with D.E. and even resorted to spraying Spinosad a couple of years..

The DE had very limited effect, and while the Spinosad worked better against cats, it wasn't a fix-all..
Plus, I did not like spaying my plants with anything other than organic "nute" tea..

Several years ago I had one of those "light bulb" moments, and I installed a bird feeder at my "hideout"..
And this past May I put up a birdhouse I built..It was moved into within the first week..

I spend about $75 a year on birdseed to keep the feeder filled, but It's been worth every penny spent!

This entire season, I have found only 5 grasshoppers at the hideout, and they were babies (half inch long green ones)

And I've only found about 7 caterpillars and they were recently hatched also.
I have not seen any at all in the past 4 weeks..

Every morning when I go out there, at least a dozen birds hear me approaching and fly into the brush surrounding the hideout..
i can hear many dozens in the trees around the hideout, waiting for me to leave...
About 6 birds know me know, and come back to eat while I'm watering the plants less than 12 feet away from the feeder...

In my humble opinion, attracting songbirds to your grow area is the very best bug and caterpillar control you can get...

I even suspect that the birds are eating the moths before they even get the chance to lay caterpillar eggs on my plants...

if you try my method, I can almost guarantee you will be very pleased with the results...this picture is from about 8 days ago..

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