Orange worms are eating my buds!

[somekindarod]

Half way into the season something bores into the stem, orange worms crawl out and up into the center of the buds and they eat them killing the bud. I loose about 50% to these little bastards. Ive tried sevin, Ive injected alcohol (with no effect on the plant) but I cant stop them. What are they and how do I stop them. Minnesota.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Re: Orange worms are eating my buds!!!!

Welcome to the world of outdoor growing! ( I assume this is outdoors)

Once they infest and actually bore in, it becomes an absolute nightmare.

The trick is not letting them infest.

I have personally dealt with borers (seen the link in my signature), and they are nasty things, the only thing you can do right now is to cut out and throw away any infected/infested parts. Usually with the boring types, the saliva induces botrytis mold which can quickly eat away at the plant tissues. It makes it easier for them to travel.

I have made it common practice to daily inspect each and every square inch of the plant. When I find a worm in a nook/cranny I use an ice pick or tweezers to get them out without damaging the bud. For the green caterpillars it's not as much of a problem.

But for the flesh colored worms that have orange heads, since they have traveled on the plant tissue, the saliva will cause the mold which will kill the buds, even if the worm doesn't bore into that particular area.

There are specialized sprays that we use for the early stages of flowering, just to fend them off and send the signal to the moths that its not a good place to lay eggs. Products such as Bt, Spinosad, Azamax, Capt. Jack...

What you are dealing with, is like what I have dealt with. I am sorry to hear about it. It is absolutely the worst, most treacherous threat that can destroy and wipe out entire crops if gone unchecked. Absolute travesty that one should never have to deal with. So I feel your pain buddy. Next time all we can do is be prepared as much as possible.

Think about putting up a mosquito netting, or very fine netting around your plants so the moths cannot lay the eggs directly on the plant. Also planting lots of companion plants such as tomatos, parsley, and mint can be a really great help.

To sum up, manual inspections and encapsulating your plants with a fine netting, in addition to routine sprays are the only way to protect ourselves against this treacherous threat.

 

[somekindarod]

Re: Orange worms are eating my buds!!!!

I have several plants outside. I've ben dealing with this for years. I just pick out the best buds and hash out the rest. sucks tho because they shit were they eat. I think the beetle is a rainbow metallic bug and the larva look like bright orange maggots same color as a bic lighter, and about 3/16 long. Netting would work but I don't want to draw any attention. And the mosquitos are so bad. But Ill try to get pics of them. Give me some time. I'm not sure were talking about the same pests. I do appreciate your help

 

[Jchaz61]

My first time growing outside & I had The Most Beautiful Buds & that Orange Maggitt is wiping out my crop, sticky ass buds & I can not stop this creature !!!
HELP ????
How to stop & keep from coming back????

 

[Dragonarn]

It looks like there may be some confusion going on here. Orange colored worms (or maggots) on crops are often not harmful at all, but are beneficial. They are Aphid Midge Larvae, and they consume from 3 to 70 aphids daily, they do not burrow into the plant or eat any part of it. After the eggs are hatched (usually about 70 eggs per batch), they go out on their own in search of prey, their only prey is aphids and they eat several different species of aphids. When they are done, they generally drop off into the soil to pupate, the adult that emerges from the cocoon are similar to gnats in appearance, these live on nectar from flowering plants and are effective pollinators. You can find out more about them and view pictures of them for comparison here: Aphid Midge / UC Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM)

 

[013]

It’s an older thread and that’s perfectly fine, date stamp is in green bar above each post

wow orange worms…nnever seen that one but thanks for dropping intel!

welcome aboard!!!