Box caterpillar help!

[GU24Mum]

We came back from being away for a few days to see that quite a few of of our box plants and some of the box hedge has been decimated by box caterpillar. We've got lots of box (laid out by previous owners) - any ideas for the best way to treat the box or should we concentrate on the hedges and call time on the poor bushes which look dead! Thanks!

These are (if I've managed it correctly), one bit of hedge which isn't too bad and a ball which looks like there's no saving it.

The ball looks to me like it has box blight - you could try cutting it back down low and keep your fingers crossed.

I'm in France and healthy box hedges and trees are now rare with us, in our region at least. They have been almost wiped out. You will need to treat all box, even if there are no caterpillars - (bright green with black stripes). The butterflies are white/beige with a black/grey border. Whenever you see these butterflies, treat your plants. We generally treat 4 times from March to October. You should find the appropriate treatment in garden centres - make sure it is neither raining or windy when you treat, obviously. The badly-eaten one may survive so treat it too. Good luck.

Thanks both. I forgot to mention that we'd had box blight too - that seems to have paled into insignificance compared with the caterpillar damage!

@minutepapillon do you treat yours with chemical or organic treatments? I'd go for one sort and OH favours the other sort.

We bought the treatment from the garden centre, it wasn't organic but it did work. By the time we had noticed the damage, we just wanted to save the tree and a few years ago, there wasn't a range of products. If you can find an organic treatment which works, then great. If your organic option is using hot (organic) soap and water, save your energy! We tried that. It does mean that a few of the caterpillars are washed off but the eggs aren't!

Thanks - we definitely don't have the patience to try and wash the plants so we've sprayed something and put up pheromone traps. Fingers crossed!