Green Budworms /2 weeks to harvest

[Debudman]

Hello folks,
I have (2) outdoor plants.
One is a Purple OG Kush, the other is a sativa Blue Dream.
Both are in the final stage of flowering and the harvest date was set for about 2 more weeks.. Unfortunately now I found I got hit by the white moth syndrome.
I found a few bud clusters on each plant that were turning a little brown. I pulled the brown spots off and small clusters of the bud just pulled off. Inside was a big green worm.. well about 1/2 inch long or so. I found about 4 worms on each plant and killed them. I cut away the bad looking areas of the bud.

Now I was wondering what my options are at this point. I had spider mites originally and have been keeping them at bay by spraying Azamax weekly. In the last few weeks I have just been spraying on the underside of the leaves and not directly on the buds. I sprayed Azamax again today pretty thoroughly .. The instructions say you can safely spray up to the last day of harvest. But my hydroponics store guy says you should allow 10 days after spraying before harvest. So that means at this point I have 2 weeks and wanted to know if there was any natural approach I can take to deal with the worms.. Can I be successful by just checking each day and picking the worms out? This situation really sucks. So far just a few small clusters were damaged. But I understand these worms can wipe a crop out completely in just a couple days..
The hydro store had a pecticide spray, but it was not OMRI listed and I try to avoid spraying harsh stuff on the buds.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[TheHashmaster]

I use Monterey brand spinosad with root organics extreme serene. You can use BTK but i dont think its omri cert. good luck

 

[dirtfarmer]

spinosad and pick pick like you never picked before.

 

[Debudman]

Thank you.
I will certainly look for your recommendation.
I thought dealing with the mites were bad enough until I encountered these villains.
I sprayed with Azamax one last time and plan to harvest in 10 days.. I hope the Azamax doesn't pose a cancer threat down the line. These sprays worry me. Sometimes though its either spray or toss crop. Next year I will be more diligent toward prevention.

Thanks again..

 

[HigherDrifter]

As I am clipping buds off broken branches I've come across three budworms so far. No doubt if the worms (probably Tobacco Budworms) are on my drying/hanging buds then they're on my Mystery Queen's buds as well.

I made up two separate spray bottles (24oz.) of BT and sprayed both my drying/hanging buds and the Mystery Queen's buds. I mean, I practically drenched them. Got a boxfan out blowing on the Mystery Queen to help dry her out a bit.

 

[Debudman]

Hey HD...

Those villains are sure a pain in the (_|_) .
I've been hitting mine with BT as well.
The heat and humidity has been up really high here in the SouthBay where I live.
I've been concerned with drenching my buds with the stuff so I've just been spraying
up under the leaves well, the stems where the pillars travel, the ground, and a light spray over the entire top of the plant.

The problem is that when you are deep into the flowering stage those little bastards dive deep inside your buds. The only way BT will kill them is if they happen to wiggle into the path of the liquid while it is wet. So the ones deep inside usually do not die. I've been out every day picking the sob's out with tweezers. They sure have ruined a lot of my buds.
But I think the BT is great to use in an effort to minimize the attack as much as possible.
I haven't found any dead ones, but hoping it has helped a little.