Insect help!

[meffa]

Hahahah perfect wording





I meant to ask you that if you found away to do it.





Hopefully that was the only one,

It's been a week and I haven't seen any signs of insects. Maybe the Monterey BT I sprayed did it's thing?

 

[Kodiak420]

It's been a week and I haven't seen any signs of insects. Maybe the Monterey BT I sprayed did it's thing?

BT works very well, I will use if it gets bad enough.


But I believe @Nunyabiz and @Stunger were the ones that recommended it..

For caterpillars make sure its BTK not BTI.
Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki is what you need for them.

and any BT is pretty safe for buds, although I dont think I'd spray it Monday and harvest it Wednesday type thing but several weeks before harvest shouldn't be a problem.
BT is totally organic and it in all the soil and on all our food we eat, totally harmless to humans.

For my grow just recently harvested I sprayed BT adhoc instead of every 1 - 2 weeks. Some caterpillars came back, not many and they didn't get to a big size, so if you're getting big size caterpillar shit you know they big. I have read reports that Neem actually breaks down in days. Later in my grow I got an infestation of red spider mites and hit them with a couple Neem sprays up until 2 weeks from harvest. I also sprayed with Dr Bronner's liquid Castille soap (1TBL to a liter), I gave a couple of those soap sprays in the final 2 weeks for bugs and also as a soap to perhaps help clean off anything unwanted. The plants also took one good rain event in that final period. I can say I have detected no Neem residue in my testing since, the buds smell dank and vapes beautifully. Bug infestations can be seriously damaging. Next grow I wont fuck around but plan of spraying to a regular schedule. Also that Potassium/Surgical soap is good too. I am only interested in the natural/organic approach and from now on I will regularly spray, I am sick of the damage that often doesn't show until some later when the damaged bud dies, the damage is done but doesn't show until later. Good luck.

But I am glad to hear/read that it is working @meffa.

 

[CanadianJim]

I had a green katydid nymph living on one of my plants last year. It was eating the leafhopper eggs, so I left it alone. It was leaving little poops on the leaves though. The nymphs are big, but really hard to see. Exactly the same colour as the leaves, and they run when they see you coming. You do want to get rid of them eventually as the adults eat plant leaves, but when it's mature it leaves to find a mate.

 

[meffa]

Adding a couple pics of my ladies. I'm guessing the yellowing is due to lack of Nitrogen?

 

[meffa]

This is so odd..... I was texting my friend that gave me the Monterey B.T. to say that I haven't seen any signs of worms or caterpillars, and I looked down and there was skinny green worm on my sweatshirt!

I watered this morning and inspected each plant closely before I watered and I didn't see any signs of insects.

I was outside in the last hour and I'm wondering if this fell off of a tree or something? God I hope so....

 

[Stunger]

Given the history of your thread you most likely have a caterpillar infestation. BT is harmless to your plant and to yourself but you have to spray every few days so catch them all, and to catch any eggs that have already been laid these wont be killed by the BT that is why you have to spray repeatedly so when they hatch the next lot of spray will get them.
To verify this, my advice if you can, is to take close up pics of some of the top buds and blow them up on the screen where often upon magnification it becomes apparent the signs of caterpillar poo, caterpillar silk strands and probably you'll also spot some caterpillars. Good luck!

 

[meffa]

Given the history of your thread you most likely have a caterpillar infestation. BT is harmless to your plant and to yourself but you have to spray every few days so catch them all, and to catch any eggs that have already been laid these wont be killed by the BT that is why you have to spray repeatedly so when they hatch the next lot of spray will get them.
To verify this, my advice if you can, is to take close up pics of some of the top buds and blow them up on the screen where often upon magnification it becomes apparent the signs of caterpillar poo, caterpillar silk strands and probably you'll also spot some caterpillars. Good luck!

Oh wow! Ok, I'll do that when the lights are back on, and I will use the BT again. When I used the BT the first time I took the plants out 2-3 at a time and put them in my then-empty 4x4 tent, which has since become home to some vegetables I have going in there. I took them out of their 4x8 to minimize the amount of water in that tent as I'm trying to control humidity in there. I'm basically whining that I have to continually go through this, but that was 5 seconds ago and I'm already over it!

Whatever it takes to get these ladies to the finish line is what I'll do. With thousands of dollars and countless hours invested, never mind the emotional side effects of losing this crop, I'd be foolish to leave any stone unturned.

I actually have some recent closeups that I took with my real camera. I'm going to move them over to my laptop and take a peek. Thank you for the advice!

Update: I zoomed in and don't see anything except gorgeous trichomes and pistils looking back at me. I'll take more pics tomorrow though. At the very least I think I just learned I can zoom in on my camera pics to see if the trichomes are turning. I have a loupe and a usb microscope as well.

 

[Stunger]

Your buds look absolutely lovely, no doubt of that. With a bit of luck you picked the caterpillar up outside. With a bit of luck... yeah right. Yes, using your 'real' camera with allow you to peruse closeups of your plants and help see trichome development and also if there's any bugs on them. However,when you said you have vegetables growing inside the tent, they might have been the culprits to bring eggs or caterpillars with them. With my last crop I re potted a 'spent' capsicum plant from the vege patch to use as a stealth barrier for my balcony grow, I think in doing so I unwittingly bought some bugs to my girls.
I think your view is right, that you have spent countless hours and lots of investment, it is too much to screw it up by allowing pests to go unchecked on your precious crop. On previously grows I have learnt this lesson more and more, next time I will no longer wait for caterpillars to appear before I react, next time I will spray preventatively, it is just not worth it.

 

[meffa]

Your buds look absolutely lovely, no doubt of that. With a bit of luck you picked the caterpillar up outside. With a bit of luck... yeah right. Yes, using your 'real' camera with allow you to peruse closeups of your plants and help see trichome development and also if there's any bugs on them. However,when you said you have vegetables growing inside the tent, they might have been the culprits to bring eggs or caterpillars with them. With my last crop I re potted a 'spent' capsicum plant from the vege patch to use as a stealth barrier for my balcony grow, I think in doing so I unwittingly bought some bugs to my girls.
I think your view is right, that you have spent countless hours and lots of investment, it is too much to screw it up by allowing pests to go unchecked on your precious crop. On previously grows I have learnt this lesson more and more, next time I will no longer wait for caterpillars to appear before I react, next time I will spray preventatively, it is just not worth it.

The vegetables are seedlings and haven't been outside. I just sprayed all of the plants with BT and just read up on bud washing. I was on the fence but from what I've read this is the way to go.

Are there any bud washers reading this that want to give their 2 cents? The instructions I read said to use lemon juice and baking soda in the first bucket, then two more buckets to rinse.

 

[CanadianJim]

All I can tell you is make sure you use a fan to dry them out before you hang them. A guy on another forum skipped that step and his harvest was ruined. Turned into one big mass of mold according to his posts.

 

[meffa]

Thank you for mentioning that. I'm adding this blurb taken from what I read here as a reminder of how to do this.

Step 7: Hang to Dry

After the buds are washed, and all of the excess moisture has been shaken off, you should hang the branch to dry, with a strong breeze blowing at it.

Turn the fans up high just for an hour or so to make sure the bigger droplets of water have been evaporated, good air flow is key to keeping mould and mildew away from your harvest.

When all of the large water droplets have gone, reduce the speed of the fans and keep a light breeze blowing around the grow room at all times.

 

[CanadianJim]

If you search Jorge Cervantes on Youtube he has a video where he demonstrates his technique. As far as I know it hasn't been taken down.