Caterpillar, bud worms question

[CoCoCounty]

I live in SF bay area California
to harvest or to spray?

I am ready to harvest and I noticed that I have moth/caterpillars.
my question is that should I pull the buds away from the stem slightly and spray for them before I harvest
and wait a few days
or
should I harvest and do the pain in the a-- and cure them and do the pick and squish method (squish the caterpillar)?
will they stop eating after the bud cures?

my strain is Kryptonite with big full buds , out door grow
the few that I have picked and am curing, I inspected last night and found the lil devils on them
and will have to pull all off the stem to inspect the middles any way..

I should be watching for tops that start to mold from them starting to
eat the steam or cause the tops to die and turn brown, will the caterpillar spray cause this to happen faster?

such a pain in the bud...
any help or advice would be appreciated

co.co.county

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Well i'm pleased ya finally got around to inspecting the bud for insects !

How ever what damage is done... so this may lead to preventive measures to safe guard all you work


It would help if you take a few pic's/photos of the critter so that an indentification is possible which can be made for future reference of said bug or problem to create awareness for the community at hand, after all knowledge is power


The insect at hand has more likely caused damage to the cambium layer of the stem (skin of the stem) the cambium layer supports the flow of sap to all parts of the plant & if damaged hinders growth or killing it...


So what ya left with is...

A systemic pesticide form of control to kill insect... basically means the insecticide gets absorb by plant, once bug ingests plant.. dies from the poison... a systemic pesticide may leave a residue trace of chemicals with in plant close to harvest... this may linger in dryed/cured product !

How ever most systemic insecticides are safe to consume by eating or disperse over time... how ever smoking plant material with residue chemical may alter chemical compounds of insecticide via heat/burning creating harmful chemicals which may damage your lungs !

So ye that is a tough call at short notice before harvest...



At the other end of the scale is hand control... yup ya fingers 'n' squish the fcukers

I'd be inclined to to trim bellow effected area by X % & destroy effected material by fire... at least ya know you are destroying bug which equals less bugs next year...

Yup means less crop... insects may linger in harvested crop for a little while but may die off... may even find the odd dry swiveled maggot/worm in ya bud when next rolling one up.



So ye man... ya call !

Get some bug pic's up for an ID parade... some ideas may flow for pest control for the future grows

 

[JJ Bones]

Harvest, salvage what you can. Those worms wreak havoc. No point in spraying.

 

[Any2cards]

They will do a lot of damage as I learned last year and in Nor Cal pillars have done the most destruction over other pests in my experience. The war starts early on and preventative measures with systemics is key. But they have to eat to die and you are way late now. How big of a crop? I would find and destroy them but not sure what you are up against in terms of volume. Good luck.

Any2

 

[CoCoCounty]

I actually have been inspecting them throughout there life but in first stage of flowers I found moth caterpillars on 2 of the 3 plants
so I sprayed for them and those two plant are ok at this point and are curing (Purple Irkle and Girl Scout)
the third plant was the Kryptonite and I had no signs of any problems........ (may be due to it not fully ripe at the time)
no that it is a problem I realize that I should have sprayed all 3 of them at the same time!!! lesson learned
next year the will be preventative measures taken!!)
I now due full inspection on all buds and find that where they eat the stem or are hatched from it, it fucks up the top part of the bud like you mention on your post. You can see the hole where they eat into the stem under magnification then if not clipped it starts to turn to mold? so I have been cutting those parts out and drying them in a cardboard box (for quicker dry) so less chance of funk!!
I also am keeping separate drying areas to prevent those bastards from crawling/infection to the other plants

 

[CoCoCounty]

 

[CoCoCounty]

Will they stay alive after you cure the buds?
should I do a quicker dry to prevent any more damage?
Or should I pick all the buds apart looking for these bastards? basically trashing the buds?
I keep my medicine all year. I vacuum seal the bag
I am afraid that if some time goes by I will open the bag and it will be all eaten/trashed by these bastards

thanks for all the help and answers !!

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

I don't think a standard caterpillar would damage the plant stem as they are more of a leaf muncher...


What i currently think !

They are sawfly/sawflies larva, the sawfly lays its eggs inside of the plant stem hence the stem damage & the caterpillars are indeed the hatched larva... you may notice some leaf damage on sugar/bud leafs possible bud also from the caterpillars.

So it would suggest a majority have now hatched... keep a close eye on remaining bud tho for symptoms of damage & i hope its just a minor localized bud problem.


If damaged bud/stem is removed before drying/curing & long term storage it should be free of eggs/larva or mold problems... but may be inclined to store infected bud separate... suggesting your own experience from last years harvest or any problems you may have occurred over long term storage being your guide line here as of first hand experience.

 

[Back Yard Grower]

Not sure what the big deal is of smoking the buds after the caterpillars have been on them, since our food supply has crushed up insects as well.

 

[013]

Welcome aboard BYG…. it’s an old thread from 2013 but no worries

I’m not trying to be an butthead (yeah it comes naturally wink wink) anyway I’d say a huge number of folks here kinda insist on not smoking insects or even worse bug shite…. trichs are not water soluble & very much like glue so whatever flies or crawls in there usually gets stuck

The majority of peeps in the know here insist on washing colas right at harvest time before beginning dry / cure phase. Yup thas right we put the buds in the water…. bud washing it’s called.

Bcuz let’s face it - one look at intake filters & fan blades etc it’s easy to see that even indoor grown weed is nasty.

 

[SmokingWings]

Welcome aboard BYG…. it’s an old thread from 2013 but no worries

I’m not trying to be an butthead (yeah it comes naturally wink wink) anyway I’d say a huge number of folks here kinda insist on not smoking insects or even worse bug shite…. trichs are not water soluble & very much like glue so whatever flies or crawls in there usually gets stuck

The majority of peeps in the know here insist on washing colas right at harvest time before beginning dry / cure phase. Yup thas right we put the buds in the water…. bud washing it’s called.

Bcuz let’s face it - one look at intake filters & fan blades etc it’s easy to see that even indoor grown weed is nasty.

True, but as @Back Yard Grower brings up, "...since our food supply has crushed up insects as well.". Insects, their body parts, and insect eggs in fresh food & frozen and canned. Plus all the small insect that we inhale and swallow all day long. Not to mention the increasing amounts of small plastic particles that are showing up in the food supply.

But if there are enough insects to see them moving around or visible signs of 'rot' then it is best to cut off that part and then bud wash.

 

[013]

Thanks Smoking Wings!

I’m confident you recall - decades ago we smoked anything with no regard for how it was grown or cured. There’s no telling what we’ve smoked - chemicals from Paraquat, Seven Dust, Spinosad, Neem and pryretherins or even molds because it wasn’t cured right.

Food is either cooked or blanched & containers are autoclaved to kill off nasties. Our stomachs are well suited to process or purge whatever we throw at it but I’m 420% confident it’s more healthy to avoid smoking bug shite or residual chemicals as much as possible.

I’ve smoked a crap ton of unwashed nugs over the years, but now I know better