Bud Worms...any advice will help!!

Hey everyone,

This is my first time growing and my plants are within days of being harvested. A little background, they've been growing outside for the past few months now and I've never had a problem with bud worms up until a few weeks ago. I've been reading the other posts and realize I could have prepared for this infestation but I had no clue it would happen . All I've been giving these plants is water and natural sunlight, with the occasional dose of MiracleGrow plant food.

My dilemma: it seems that every morning when I inspect the plants, I pick off a few new worms from the buds. Some of the leaves are being eaten up as well. Even as I start to trim off buds and prepare them to be cured, I'll find a worm here and there and some black "dirt" which I suspect is basically worm shit . I'm worried that I have a complete infestation which will negatively affect my plants and my buds.

My question: at this stage in the game, is there anything I can put on the plants to kill or remove the worms without ruining the buds (again, I will be completely harvesting within a week)? I'm not a chemist, so I'd like to stay away from getting fancy chemicals and I welcome any home-grown ideas to rid me of these bud-munching pests.

Thank you for your time and advice! Much love and peace

very sorry man., that sucks, what do the worms look like?, can u get a pic?.,i heard u could pray the plant w/ organic liquid dish soap mixed with water, but sad thing is i heard 2 do this before flowering. or another thing is lady bugs, or other preditory insects, but i dont think they eat worms.

All the organic loving people on here will kill me, but since you don't mind using miracle gro, lol...There are sprays at Home Depot/Lowes for vegetables that you can spray on your plants until harvesting.

Dam that reallly sucks Im having the same problem. I just started to notice these little fuckers today when lookin at my buds. Only found one tho, but Im sure thats the start to many. still have at least 2 weeks till harvest:/

Use neem oil - it will kill them, but not you.

personally, i don't think neem will work at this stage, since the worms are within the buds eating that shit up. it may be best to pull early for damage control. i don't know of a product out there that will kill them without fucking up the final product. if this were 3-4 weeks away, BT would run shit, but this close to pull...not on my watch. like i said above, i'd pull early - at least the top colas that are mature.

there is probably someone on here that knows of a product that may help you, but that's my advice.

maybe a little early not too early, maybe like 2-1 1/2 weeks away from 8

same problem...hubby uses "Safer Catapiller Killer" states on bottle safe for budding stage.

i got em too... little a-holes, i wanted to let my buds go longer, looks like i'll have to harvest this weekend : ( arg they live in the bud and are neon green... will they get into the plants nearby that are coming up behind this one? they have at least 2 weeks or more to go.

Your only answer at this point is "hard work" You MUST dig into the buds and remove the worms twice a day. If you have a air compressor you can regulate it down to 10-15 psi and blow the caterpillar shit out with a blow gun.. Don't be afraid to dig into the buds!

Yaboii said:

Your only answer at this point is "hard work" You MUST dig into the buds and remove the worms twice a day. If you have a air compressor you can regulate it down to 10-15 psi and blow the caterpillar shit out with a blow gun.. Don't be afraid to dig into the buds!

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I am also having catapiller problems. I sprayed 3 times this season, stopped when budding started. Worms are not as bad as last year. Next year, for sure, I'm growing under mosquito netting.

azamax is safe, effective and expensive, I just buy 8 oz at a time from my guys...you can use it up until the day of I think

spray up to the first four weeks of flowering with azatrol;

I use both a mix of azamax and safter cat killer. I also bought trichogamma and released them to kill the eggs. I also spend like 2 hours a day inspecting plants and pulling worms.

How's your fight going mwooten? I've been picking worms for days. I am going to get that Safer Caterpillar killer. hopefully it's not too late.

eh, its going ok, I'm sure I spend wayy to much time pulling them off. I have noticed a sharp decline in the size of the worms I'm pulling. Now I just hope that my trichogamma can manage to kill enough eggs to make a difference. I put 12000 tricho eggs out yesterday.