What's happened to my Buxus!?

[Janie94]

Any keen gardeners know what I need to do to get rid of this, my buxus potted plants are being eaten to death by caterpillars see photo!
TIA

Here we are..

Box Bush caterpillars - they are awful, I don't know what you do about them - they killed my bushes

www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/box-tree-caterpillar

You can't get rid of them I'm afraid. They are an invasive species and are destroying boxus bushes. I lost both of mine this year and I caught them early with only a few caterpillars on each, I snipped them off and poured boiling water over them to kill them. I thought I'd managed to get rid of them because there was no sign for a few good few months and then the other I spotted they were covered in hundreds of the blighters! Sadly they've had to be destroyed.

Those caterpillars are dreadful. I've tried various things but they have literally destroyed all of my buxus, including one beautiful huge round one I'd grown from a teeny plant. So upsetting but I'm not sure there is anything you can do to beat them.

Damn thanks everyone for letting me know, I just googled and it said the same, suggesting pesticide or biological fertilisers, my guess is they are just doomed?

Anyone have any suggestions what other plants I could put in my pots? They mostly sit in shade but see a little bit of sun. Maybe a red grass would be better? X

Standard bay trees? Lavender?

Ilex crenata aka Japanese holly.

It looks like box, you can clip it like box, but since it is part of the holly family it doesn't have box problems, either with the caterpillars or box blight.

I'm sure there's a hebe that grows quite compact.

Hebe 'Green Globe', and probably others. Compact, like box, but also flowers. I'm tempted myself now.

topbuxus xentari works. I buy it from Amazon and use double concentration. Your little plant looks quite damaged though.
The little sachets are expensive and will treat a large plant, so try to only mix what you need.

Explore the RHS site - they ran some trials on suitable alternatives to Box. I think Ilex crenata came out quite well

For bix moth infestations, you need XenTari.

It definitely works. I would recommend that you use it in conjunction with Health Mix.

Thank you everybody! X

I bought nematodes and over 3 weeks treated my miniature box hedge which was being destroyed by caterpillars. It's now regrowing and although I've had to cut back some of the worst parts, I think I'm winning, for now! Cost about £18, way cheaper than replanting and much less work.

Yep, definitely Xentari by top buxus.

Theoretically, the foliage is the only thing that is damaged by the caterpillar, the roots should be unaffected. If you get rid of the caterpillars by breaking the life cycle with the Xentari, you can then use the Health Mix by TopBuxus to regrow the leaves, though it may take a few seasons for it to look somewhat normal again.

You can also buy phermone traps to catch the male moths before they mate with the females. People have less success with this though, as you will never catch ALL of the moths and even a few can produce many many caterpillars.

Buxus blight is another problem altogether!
Buxus is a lovely plant but has so many problems.

Good lookalikes are YEW, ILEX CRENATA, or the new species of buxus which are supposed to be more resistant to blight and box moth, but I'm not sure these are readily available yet.