Here come the catapillars

I knew they would start showing their ugly heads soon enough. Been spraying BT a few times a week since first sign of flower. My White Berry Indicas are pretty far along and maybe just a few weeks from harvest. So of course that's where they are hatching. Poked around for a while with my nerdy pocket flat head screw driver. I pulled about a dozen off of two plants.

Only two had any size...about 3/4". All the rest were babies. Less than a quarter inch long. Minimal damage. Every day for the next three weeks will be catapillar inspection. If I can catch them as they hatch I should be fine. I hope

All were found on the tops. So each plant has about about six tops. It took a good hour plus to inspect two plants.

I did find one dead catapillar next to another that was thriving. My understanding is that they kill each over territory?

DubsFan said:

I knew they would start showing their ugly heads soon enough. Been spraying BT a few times a week since first sign of flower. My White Berry Indicas are pretty far along and maybe just a few weeks from harvest. So of course that's where they are hatching. Poked around for a while with my nerdy pocket flat head screw driver. I pulled about a dozen off of two plants.

Only two had any size...about 3/4". All the rest were babies. Less than a quarter inch long. Minimal damage. Every day for the next three weeks will be catapillar inspection. If I can catch them as they hatch I should be fine. I hope

All were found on the tops. So each plant has about about six tops. It took a good hour plus to inspect two plants.

I did find one dead catapillar next to another that was thriving. My understanding is that they kill each over territory?

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The BT is not working for you?

5150 said:

The BT is not working for you?

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Compared to grows of the past it's working. But no it hasn't stopped them. It has retarted them in the sense that they would be chomping away a few week earlier. I'm stoked I'm just a few weeks out from harvest and that they are babies.

Grows of the past I would have been plucking 1.5" catapillars out a few weeks ago.

BT works but I don't think it's the cure all. Maybe I'm doing something wrong...

Edit: Givent the durability of the other two strains I have rolling that are not deep into flower, I will increase my BT strenght. Let's see if they turn out better. Some have just flowered and it's my understanding that you must BT all the way through all phases of flower because they get in their early. Starting spray a month from harvest is possibly a waste. I've been spraying since flower.

Edit of Edit The two plants I plucked the small ones from still look great and have maybe a combined 1g of lost herb. It can and may get worse. But a .25" catapillar is so young he just can't eat that much. A 1"er though can chomp a stem that will cost you a few g's of herb.

I caught mine early and used sevin dust and safer soap, only one treatment killed mine

Mr.Therapy Man said:

I caught mine early and used sevin dust and safer soap, only one treatment killed mine

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Please elaborate.

What do you mean by early and as far as killed that means you've harvested and have seen the fruits of your labor to identify the effectiveness of this treatment.

I'm curious.

I just don't want to start soaking my nugs a week out from flushing and three weeks from harvest. Those are pretty good timelines for me on this strain.

I've been spraying once a week for the past four and so far have found only one live and three dead caterpillars. Last couple of seasons were horrible with caterpillars I think because I didn't spray till later in bud. I use 10 gallons of mixed solution on 29 plants. Started with Safer then when it got to hard to locate here switched to Green light lawn and garden, I mixed it 4 tbl per gallon of water, twice what the directions said, so far no adverse effects seen and very few caterpillars. I also put lots of praying mantis eggs out this spring and still see them in the garden after spraying.

Safer makes two kinds of soap that is supposed to be safe even during early flowering.I put seven dust on the soil because I read thats where they stayed at night.My plants were noy budding when I found the catipilars in the soil and under side of leafes.I probably had 30 cats on 10 plants and the soap killed all of them ( Safer Soap)

Mr.Therapy Man said:

Safer makes two kinds of soap that is supposed to be safe even during early flowering.I put seven dust on the soil because I read thats where they stayed at night.My plants weoy budding when I found the catipilars in the soil and under side of leafes.I probably had 30 cats on 10 plants and the soap killed all of them ( Safer Soap)

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I think for now I'm at the point where I'm just gonna pick them off every day. If they are really young and tiny they won't be a big deal.

I have a pyrithreum (spelling) spray I will use tonight. A good dose tonight with 80 degree temps should be totally safe.

after reading this i went out and sprayed my purple hoes with bt

MediMaryUser said:

after reading this i went out and sprayed my purple hoes with bt

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BT is preventative. It doesnt' kill anything. Grab a small flat head screw driver. Grab a chair while in good lighting and start digging. Start with the tops. Butterflies land on plants not in them.

If they are mature they look like stems and are green. If they are young and tiny they are brown. I find them anywhere from the top to 3" down. Right now they haven't eaten shit. They only dig in on my plants late in flower...like three weeks left.

If you have six weeks left they are there. Just waiting. Like they ordered Pizza but with a long delivery time.

2 weeks into flowering and have not sprayed. But after readind this I think I should start. Is it too late to see any results?

ralston420 said:

2 weeks into flowering and have not sprayed. But after readind this I think I should start. Is it too late to see any results?

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My understanding is you want to start spraying now. Basically you're just into flower.

Spray a couple times a week until 2 weeks from harvest. I think my infestation is higher than I would like because of my low dosage. BT will burn your leaves. I never bumped up my concentrate. You know you slowly increase nute strength based on plant response. My guess is this would apply with BT.

I should have sprayed more. But I don't think anything can really stop them. I did spray pyrythium how ever the fuck you spell it where I noticed my catapillars...at the tops. This stuff kills only on contact. I'm hoping the heavy stream I used got into the gaps of the nugs (that's where I find these fucker) and have killed the ones that have hatched.

I went out this morning and found one just coming out of its cacoon. Took me 2min to find one more. A dead one was next to him. No crunchy dead nugs, no poop. So far my plant is fine.

I'm gonna be out there every morning. My other plants will see heavyier doses of BT moving forward.

Just checked the top of my white widow. The main cola is more advanced then the other tops. It had baby catapillar. All others look good so far but I'm clearly in a reactive position here. I've got a hatching going on. Checked my other bush and the main cola top had a baby catapillar too.

those nasty creatures are on the top of my shit list. they do so much damage it's amazing. to think that i used to like butterflies....

I havnt seen any yet and yesterday was the second time i sprayed them there only like 2 weeks into flowering, i cant afford to loose any bud especially cuz my grows hella small as it is lol

MediMaryUser said:

I havnt seen any yet and yesterday was the second time i sprayed them there only like 2 weeks into flowering, i cant afford to loose any bud especially cuz my grows hella small as it is lol

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Two weeks into flower is a little early to see them. They dont' have much to eat yet. Start sprayin' and prayin'.

Yeah Papi, I look at butterflies in a completely different manner.

Just plucked a few more off today. I'm catching them very early. Some still coming out of a little cacoon. Minimal damage thus far. My fingertips are taking a beating. Getting the resin off takes a solid scrubbing. It's amaizing how durable a few hundred trichomes can be.

DubsFan said:

BT is preventative. It doesnt' kill anything. Grab a small flat head screw driver. Grab a chair while in good lighting and start digging. Start with the tops. Butterflies land on plants not in them.

If they are mature they look like stems and are green. If they are young and tiny they are brown. I find them anywhere from the top to 3" down. Right now they haven't eaten shit. They only dig in on my plants late in flower...like three weeks left.

If you have six weeks left they are there. Just waiting. Like they ordered Pizza but with a long delivery time.

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BT should kill them once they ingest it, atleast the thuricide i use does, i actually found a nice size once when spraying one day so i made sure i got him, about an hour later i checked to see if it was still there and it was dead with its insides spewing out, i think this is the same stuff.

I read this thread yesterday and went out an found a couple still very small.what is the best and most effectice way to kill these guys other than picking'em out myself????Also where can i pick this stuff up?????

DubsFan said:

My fingertips are taking a beating. Getting the resin off takes a solid scrubbing. It's amaizing how durable a few hundred trichomes can be.

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Try spraying your fingers with PAM cooking spray. Resin melts right away. PAM washes off easily.

Works good for cleaning your scissors at harvest time too!

So far (knock, knock) this screen barrier has worked. If you can figure out a way to hang some of this screen around your plants, you can keep most of the bugs at bay. I haven't had to spray for caterpillars yet!

Good luck everybody, fight on!

P.S.
Can you hear my plants inside there talking? "Grandmaw, what are caterpillars?"

I didn't really catch them early. They somehow got into my veg room and eat on my fresh clones and my mommas. I don't recommend using Safer soap since your plants are already into flowering stage. It won't hurt to use it on the leaves. But don't use it on bud sites it gets between the hairs and your smoke ends up tasting and smelling like soap(I know because I got eat up with aphids and had to use it on plants that where 2 weeks from harvest) The sevin dust seemed to work but before I used it me and a friend spent 2plus hours picking caterpillars off my plants. Probably 125 caterpillars were plucked so I didn't catch it early. It probably took about a week to get eat the fuck up. But I haven't seen any more. They had me eat up pretty bad. I was scared to death they were going to get into my flowering chamber. But that has been a month ago. I can't figure out where in the hell they came from. I haven't had any butterflies in my house. They just kept multiplying. I had just transplanted with a new bag of dirt( Ocean's Forest). I wondered if maybe they came out of it or the wisconsin red wigglers. Maybe neither. I really don't know where they came from. What is BT? I've used Ed Rosenthal Zero Tolerance, Pyrenthrium bombs, Safer Soap, hell I even bought some predator lady bugs to kill them aphids but I've never heard of BT. The Ed Rosenthal Zero Tolerance will kill anything hell it almost kills the plant. I think it needs to be diluted. I believe if you diluted it it would work great. It's just a little too strong. It smoked my shit. I think you are doing the right thing by plucking them off. I hated to use the sevin dust in my house but hell I had to. I don't know how I kept them outta my flowering room. Good Luck!