Box Hedge Moth

[TurquoiseDreamCatcher]

We have two box hedges outside our house, we inherited them with the house. About a week ago, I noticed that one looked dead which I thought was odd as it seemed to have died almost over night.

Then on the school run, I noticed that someone else’s hedge looked the same. Woke up this morning and our second hedge has been decimated!

A bit of research shows it’s the Box Hedge Moth. On closer inspection, we found loads of caterpillars around the bottom of the hedge. No doubt on their way to destroy another hedge. AI suggests killing them, I can’t bring myself to do that!

Has anyone else had these little buggers?

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

Yep, and they were really difficult to get rid of. We ended up getting rid of the box hedges instead.

I think we are going to have to get rid of the hedges, they look completely dead. I was amazed at how quickly they were destroyed.

Spray with a jet wash, if you can’t face using spray. Keep doing it.
But if you can’t spray them, they will continue to eat any box in sight.

If you spray them off regularly and quickly, the box can recover.

Spray with Xen Tari. I get mine from Amazon. I spray about every 5 weeks from April to October and it keeps the box fine. They will return so you have to keep it up

I’ve beaten ours (for now!) you need xentari. It’s a nematode so don’t harm any other wildlife. You have to adhere to a very strict regime. Spray three times a year - on very specific dates.

We had this last year, have a small hedge in part of the garden, looked properly dead by the time the moths finished, bizzarely it grew back this year, leafed and is flourishing, never treated it with anything.

also it could be blight. If you can see cobwebby bits its moth.

What you need is a flock of starlings. They'll eat all the caterpillars in 20 minutes flat. I saw this happen to a neighbour's box ball a few years ago. About 50 starlings were fighting over it! Maybe encourage them with some bird food around the bush.

(If you are going to try this, for goodness sake don't spray the bush with insecticide)

" AI suggests killing them, I can’t bring myself to do that!"
The only alternative is that they survive, turn into moths, and they find other living box hedges to lay their eggs on, to turn into caterpillars who kill the box.

Something has to die here. Caterpillar or box. Box or caterpillar. They can't both survive. The box moth is not native here, so it has no predator. Nor does the caterpillar, birds won't eat them, they're poisonous.

I picked them off and drowned scores of the bastards and my boxes still died. If you let the caterpillars live, know that by doing so you are killing the local box and facilitating the spread of this non-native predatorless species.

Yes, we have the cobwebby bits.

You are right!

We do have a jet washer, I’ll try giving it a wash before spraying it with xentari. Thank you for the suggestion @DeathBanana

Jet washer wont sort it. I’ve been using xentari two or three times per summer for three years. Amazon have stopped selling it but go direct to the makers Top Buxus. The caterpillars stop eating within the hour and then die. It’s safe for birds.

I'm afraid your box might aswell be removed and replaced. I've not seen any local to me survive it

I planted box hedging over 25 years ago. It was fine for a long time, then it got both blight and moths. It was a pull out or rescue situation. I use a local topiary specialist to maintain it each year. He cuts it occasionally but we cut it ourselves most years. I've been to Wisley to look at the alternatives, not really the same, so i will persist. But my neighbours box looks awful. I am south east.

Mine were destroyed. Had to pull it all
out after 15 years. I haven’t figured out a replacement yet.

I have a box plant that I'm surprised has never been affected by anything but I was told it's because it's in its natural shape, albeit squashed in amongst other shrubs now that they have grown. She said growing them as hedges makes them more susceptible to attack from things.

So if you love box, it's worth a try having it in a more natural form, once you've got rid of the caterpillars 🤞

All I can say is we have 100 sq metres of box and as soon as I see the caterpillars I spray with xentari and it’s looking v healthy. I also bung in some of the health mix they sell as well - a foliar fertiliser. I don’t work for them but do look at the Top Buxus website

There's a guy on insta that I follow, he posts his advice on protecting the box, his topiary is amazing.

He says to spray xentari when you see moth damage and then every two weeks until mid June. He also posts reminders when to spray.

Spotted moths this week, I've sprayed so have ordered more xentari to last me. I have a lot of box balls so its a big commitment to keep them.

I also feed mine every week, diluted seaweed feed.

I have two balls that were quite bare last year but seem to have bounced back a bit

Our garden used to have a lot of ornamental box (planted by our green-fingered predecessors) - both in rows and individual balls.

We just about survived blight but the caterpillars invaded when we were on holiday one year and decimated most of it. We tried spraying and also some sort of pheromone trap but had to admit defeat.

This is the fella I follow who tells you when to use xentari. It’s literally within a specific few days periodically, when the moths are laying eggs

www.instagram.com/kwekerijgoossens?igsh=eHZvZzEwdGJvbXNn

It will be a battle you'll need to keep fighting unfortunately so my advice is to get rid of the hedge and replace with something native that will create its own ecosystem of critters and natural predators.

I had the same, the hedge was absolutely ruined in just a few weeks. I pulled them out in the end and replaced with laurel which is still looking good eight years on.

Laurel is no good for wildlife unfortunately. Toxic and not native to the UK. Far better options out there.

There are very few box hedges left in my area now. I tried for two years to save mine but finally admitted defeat ☹️
I replaced with photinia and am very pleased with it.