Boxwood moth

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russell
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Boxwood moth

Post by russell »

About a week ago I noticed a brown spot on a conically trimmed box in our garden, thought it was getting dry and needed water so I watered it. Two days later half of it was brown and covered in cobwebs. Sprayed it with insecticide but a couple of days later it was completely brown and I removed it.

This was the culprit: http://www.gerbeaud.com/jardin/fiches/p ... ,1402.html

I'm now spraying a 6 metre long box hedge that has developed brown patches with bacille thuringiensys but without much hope of success. :(

So, if you have box hedges or topiary keep a close eye on them.

Russell
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Post by dsd »

Thanks for the info. I haven't seen any caterpillars or moths but my young boxwood has the same problem; I thought it was because the dog had peed on them and killed them! I only have 3 left of the original 7 bought
Sus
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Post by Sus »

Also thanks for sharing, I also havent seen any moths but have the same symptoms :(

Please share the outcome of your spraying, I might try the water and/or see whether I can actually catch the caterpillars :evil:
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russell
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Post by russell »

Sus wrote:I might try the water and/or see whether I can actually catch the caterpillars :evil:
Each moth lays several hundreds of eggs and there can be three generations a year. So, if they all survive (fortunately unlikely) one moth will produce,say 500 x 500 x 500 = 125 million offspring! Good luck with catching them all.

Russell
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Post by Webdoc »

russell wrote:Each moth lays several hundreds of eggs and there can be three generations a year. So, if they all survive (fortunately unlikely) one moth will produce,say 500 x 500 x 500 = 125 million offspring! Good luck with catching them all.

Russell
Indeed. I believe you can either have box, or you can have the moth, but you can't have both as, once infested, the bush is completely destroyed in a couple of days. They're voracious eaters.

A local friend managed to save the life of his very sick moth-eaten box hedge by using a power-washer to blast the hell out of the critters and surprisingly the plants survived. He must have been in the nick of time.
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