Hope it all works out for you I was able to catch mine early on one plant and kept it from spreading, damn caterpillars I chose captain jacks to use for the remainder of my grow, I have 1 huge cheese fem photo almost ready and harvested 4 blueberry autos already
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Thanks for tips. I’ll get Captain Jack to try next time.
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I’ve been reading up on these catepillars. Never in my life I had to deal with so much infestation from it.
Some good sourcesof info are:
How to detect and fight caterpillars, one of the worst plagues attacking cannabis plants
humboldtseeds how-to-detect-and-fight-caterpillars-one-of-the-worst-plagues-attacking-cannabis-plants/
I think what I found on my girls look like this one:
corn earworm
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/corn_earworm.htm
Marijuana growers need to beware of these pesky insects
This is also good summary of many pests:
Hemp Insect Factsheets
How to Keep Caterpillars Off Your Cannabis Plants
royalqueenseeds how-to-keep-caterpillars-off-your-cannabis-plants-n203
CONTROLLING COMMON HEMP PESTS AND DISEASES ORGANICALLY - PART hemp controlling-common-hemp-pests-and-diseases-organically
It’s a war!
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good luck buddy, I think you will need it… 
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@Myfriendis410, I waited a couple of days after spraying with peroxide half diluted. Mainly because I was eating for the shipment. I got Safer’s cat-killers. Also order Captain Jack’s which I’ll use next round. The rots was dried up and fell off a lot easier. I think peroxide spray did kill a lot of the mold. The buds weren’t as sticky as it was earlier so it was a lot easier to work with. I flipped the branches every direction and sprayed them this morning. Although the direction says spray them at dusk. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to see well plus the mosquitos are worst then. I guess I have to wait about 5 days before I can spray the BT again, right? How close to harvest can I spray? I looked at them with the loupe and the trichomes are still mostly clear. I can’t tell how much longer it will be before ready for harvest.
Thanks again for all your help.
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Dang @Ning… Those critters strike QUICK!!! my first pest battles were with pillars… They WRECKED my grow… Ended up tossing a few plants while still in veg… I was a rookie grower and losing the war… Anywho MyFriend is on the case… And Best of luck in ur battle
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Thanks, @PurpNGold74. Hopefully I still have some good ones left. Was out in the garden all day working until 8pm. Growing too many thing, lol! Got so excited to see some pistols turning red already. I took the scope out but couldn’t manage to keep the buds still, it was breezy all day.
Saw many grass hoppers, are they eating my plants? And got some friend too. Looks like she’s gonna pop some numbers of babies!
My WW is the one with red pistils although the buds look so skinny! Maybe it was from early flowering and lost lots of energy.
The peroxide spray really works killing the mold. The rotted parts just dried up and flake off easily. The remaining parts look healthy. How close do I have for those red-pistils buds. The trichomes are all milky and I hardly found any amber ones. Wonder if I can still spray Captain Jack’s on it.
So far I’ve done:
Thu Sept 12 sprayed 50/50 peroxide
Sun Sept 15 sprayEd with Safer’s caterpillar killer (BT)
We’d Sept 18 sprayed with my juice: Gosht pepper + garlic, first extracted with peroxide about a cup and add water to 2 gallon and sprayed like soak festival. The photoes were all taken yesterday
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I’ve been cleaning up dry rot off the buds and found caterpillar carcasses that looked like it imploded, so grossed! But better them rotted than my buds. Still have to cut more of and still found some live, healthy ones. I’ll spray Captain Jack’s tonight! Meanwhile, am going to spray half diluted peroxide now.
At least got some satisfaction to see carcasses of these damned caterpillars in various degrees of decomposition. I pulled apart the buds open to get in the center of each and everyone of them. Also sprayed with half-diluted peroxide after pulling out the rot. Found fresh, live caterpillars so need to spray it with another round of BT. Just got Captain Jack’s yesterday in the mail. So tonight is the night they’ll die again!!! MUAHAHA!
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Caterpillars and grasshoppers are little green devils!!! Kill them ALL!
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Plus those white butterflies with the black dot: they are all the avatars of Satan haha.
Captain jack’s up to the day of harvest is fine. A Praying Mantis is a sign that you have pests and those grasshoppers are bad news.
Plan on doing a bud wash when you harvest. 1 cup of peroxide in a bucket of water, immerse branches for 6 to 8 minutes, agitate, remove and rinse with the shower setting on a hose. Drip dry and dry as normal.
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Haha and honorable mention goes to aphids and leaf miners… man so many enemies… ladybugs, manti, n spiders… only allies we get?
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I’ve got the beginnings of russet mites but a dose of 50/50 peroxide did a J.O.B. on them and I’m chopping next Tuesday anyway.
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Man i hope my battle outdoors next year isnt as tough as yalls… may just do autos and early
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I’d never worked so hard, manually, all my life!!!
It’s been two weeks since I came back to the horror of bud rots. I had no idea how deep it got to the core of the buds. These damned moths laid eggs probably on top of the buds. When they hatched, the tiny mother foggers must have crawled into the center of the bud to make themselves cozy nests where they eat, poop, and sleep the hot days away comfortably while the buds start to rot from the core out. At the beginning, when the buds fattened up and get so dense, is when the peak of infestation goes. From the outside, the buds look so pretty and fat and juicy. So you’re smittened with bud porn, not knowing how rotten they are inside.
The first week, I was picking and picking the rotted buds on my giant 10 footer so I was on the ladder 3-5 hours at a time, I started to get severe foot pain. I also sprayed half diluted peroxide alternately with garlic-pepper in hope to deter the moths a little.
Then about 8-9 days ago, after @Myfriendis410’s advice, I sprayed them with BT, then two days later, followed with peroxide. When all the rot drieId up, I was dismayed to discover that there was rot in every single branch on my 10’ GL. The White Widow next to her got rots pretty bad too. When I saw the sign of amber on my WW, I cut her down, rinsed in peroxide, dripped dry with fan, then hung the whole plant upside down. I dug up the roots and man! it was big!!!
And 3-4 days ago, I realized all other 4 plants were ready to be cut already!
My 10-footer was a massive undertaking! Next year, I have to learn how to NOT let them grow taller than 5’.
Here’s my ten-footer GL which became 9’ at the time I cut her down because the main cola was rotted beyond help.
I had to cut 4 huge lower branches one day and took the rest the next day, I was exhausted, working from morning until after dark everyday this past 45- days.
Her root was even bigger that the one above but I was so beaten, I didn’t have energy to take picture of it.
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Yesterday, I took down 3 plants: A 5’ GL what I planted in Feb and had revegged. Most of her buds are pretty healthy.
Then the tiny white Widow that had been through so much. She got root rot as a seedling, then eraly flower, then bud rot so bad by the time I cut her cola off, she was only 15" tall for 5-6 weeks, the revegged and looked healthy enough so I hated to kill her and let her grow. She wasn’t doing much, grew to 2 1/2’ and got stepped on a lot while I worked on the big gals.
Another White Widow got rot so bad I ended up composted the whole plant, RIP!!!
I have one Skywalker I planted in Jun and topped at 6 weeks. She was doing the best because she didn’t waste her energy with early flowering. She looks gorgeous!
We are getting rain coming Sat and today it was very overcasted so I went out to spray with peroxide before going to Home Depot to get stuff to build a rain protection tent for her. Boy! I found some rot when I bent open the bud stems to spray peroxide to the core. I found many much smaller catepillars, mostly dead from my BT spray earlier but a few still hapily munching, pooping in the center of very dense buds. It was messy, sticky business so I didn’t get my phone out to take any picture.
So I got idea from @AAA, from his PVC frame for rain cover and he gave me some pointers what to look for since I have never made anything like that all my life, I’m not a handy type, wish I could leran though.
The Home Depot staff were very nice and helpful so I got all the supplies I need and some, in case. I ended up making about 5’ x 6’ structure with 1’ PVC. I could have used smaller ones but I got some stakes made with 1/2" PVC with one end cut slanted. I want to slip the 1" PVC onto the stakes so it’s easy to dismantle since it will not be long before she is ready.
Worked in the twilight so I couldn’t see well but it’s standing, just in time when the misting starts to get heavy. Although it won’t rain today but the air is so saturated, everything outside got wet already.
![image|374x500]
(upload://v06vb5iQg3HRSfRLeOICDUWLRAV.jpeg)
I found the bent connector pipe in the electrical aisle and like it. It saved a few elbow connector plus it’s smooth for plastic to go over. I also beefed up the structure a bit more but it was too dark to take good picture already.
I drenched her with a whole quart of Captain Jack’s brew before I trapped her up
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Lesson learned for next growing:
For bugs
- Start spraying with my garlic-pepper brew as soon as planted and through out veg state. Major pest in veg stage are spider mites, thrips, aphids, etc. are killed by this brew. I only had mites and thrips that need constant spraying. This works well into early flowering as it deters moths too. Aphids don’t even have a chance with my brew so I never seen aphids in my garden for decades.
- Once flowering stage starts, spray with BT.
For wetness
- If wet weather happens, spray with half diluted peroxide alternately with BT a couple of times a week
For plant care management
- I need to learn techniques to control the height. What should I do? Topping at 5-6 nodes? Is Fimming better? If I do outdoor SCROGging, would it work? I attempted on the Skywalker but had to leave and be away for 3 1/2 weeks. By the time I got back, it was to late to train her.
I’m planting indica next season so they are all tall ones, some listed at going to be as tall as 10’. I will not let that happen again! Please advice what training techniques would be effective in limiting the height.
Topping and fimming DEFINITELY help a bit. Plsnting later also helps… but its hell hot in midsummer… scrogging works but immobilizes the ladies… check into cropping n supercropping. Quite a few techniques to reduce vertical growth. Just needs to be implemented early
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Be sure to not spray peroxide within 5 days of application of C. J.'s. The peroxide kills bacteria.
You learned a valuable outdoor lesson. I would only suggest the single best way to keep caterpillars off of your plants is to use a horticulture screen which physically bars the insects from getting to the plant. As you see the pests introduce infection to the plant.
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Thanks. Yes, I need the right terms to search for it, supercropping, that is.
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