Talking with my girlfriend the other day I happened to mention that I was more than sad to see that my box hedging seemed to have been badly scorched while we were away for a few days, I know it was hot but they have never shown any problem of drying out before. Have a closer look she told me as I bet you will find caterpillars on them.
She was right if I had my glasses on the first time I looked I might have spotted them. The Box Hedge Moth is indeed the culprit.
I spent hours picking them off with tweezers and I kid you not picked over 1,000 the picture above is about the third of the amount collected. I have now sprayed the plants and will be watching very closely to see what happens over the next day or so.. There is a good chance that I may save my hedges but only time will tell. Have a look at this link for treatment.
Box Hedge Caterpillar .Treatment.
Box Hedge Caterpillar .Treatment.
3 comments:
Hi - can you let us know the outcome? did you manage to save your plants? Also, when you were picking the caterpillars off, were they throughout the hedge or just towards the edges? how did you get to the centre of large plants? thanks
Yes the plants are recovering slowly and as for the caterpillars they were all over the plant although a lot were on the sides and top of the plant. I used a spray and put it up under the plants to get to the center. Hope you manage to get them all of the plant. Also found out that they have 3 seasons April, June and September. Yesterday I saw three moths fly out of my box hedging so I sprayed them again. Hope you can save your plants.
I gave up and have taken all my box hedge out now :(
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