- The boxwood moth, an invasive pest from Asia, quickly destroys Polish gardens, becoming a real nuisance for allotment gardeners.
- The larvae of this voracious invader can produce up to three generations in one season, and the characteristic spider webs are a sign of urgent action.
- Don’t let the box trees be destroyed! Learn a home-made, surprisingly effective way to fight moths, using a kitchen product.
It came to Europe from Asia in the early 2000s and since then it has been wreaking real havoc in Polish gardens. For gardeners, it is a real nuisance and a pest that is difficult to get rid of. rapidly destroying boxwood crops. It can also feed on holly and bumblebee. In warm weather, adults can give birth to three successive generations of larvae in just one season. This makes the boxwood moth a very difficult opponent.
How can you tell if your boxwood has been attacked by the boxwood moth?
It’s not easy in the first phase. When there are few pests, they are easy to miss. Most often, adults can be seen flying around the crowns of shrubs. Later, minor damage to leaves and shoots appears. When the bush is already attacked, you can observe characteristic white threads resembling spider webs. They appear inside the plant’s crown. This is where the most dangerous larvae feed. They lead to the destruction and death of plants. In this case, you need to act quickly.
What does a boxwood moth look like?
Adult individuals are butterflies with white, pearly shiny wings with a distinct brown border on the edges, although there are also completely brown forms. They have a wingspan of about 4 cm and can often be seen flying around box trees in the evenings. However, the real havoc is wreaked by the larvae, i.e. the caterpillars – they are intensely green with characteristic black stripes along the body and a black, shiny head, reaching a length of up to 4-5 cm. Look for them among boxwood leaves, often hidden in the delicate spider webs they create, and pay attention to gnawed leaves and tiny green droppings, which are clear signs of their presence.
Sprinkle this powder on the boxwood and you will save the bush from the attack of the boxwood moth
Before you reach for it, test home remedies. These work great against the boxwood moth and are often sufficient. Professional gardeners indicate that two home-made powders are useful in the fight against boxwood moth – flour and baking powder.
Flour is a supporting weapon in the fight against pests. It has a protective effect and also sticks to the boxwood moth larvae and blocks their breathing holes. The suffocated pests fall below the ground, where they must be collected and destroyed. Gardeners recommend placing foil or a jute bag under the bush, which makes it easier to catch all the individuals. Using flour to fight boxwood moth is very simple. Sprinkle the bush with plain wheat flour and wait. This treatment is repeated several times during the pest feeding season, i.e. until early autumn.
Another useful powder in the fight against pests is baking powder. It is best to use it as a spray. Take 4 tablespoons of baking powder and add 1 liter of water. Mix everything thoroughly and pour into a spray bottle. On a rainless evening, spray the bush mixture. Repeat this treatment in two weeks. Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, which changes the pH of the leaves and harms the larvae. Remember that using baking powder too often may change the soil reaction to a more alkaline one, so do not perform this treatment more than twice.
