Box Tree Moths & Caterpillars - You Have Beaten Me! 🐛😡

Well today is a very sad day for my garden because I am admitting defeat against the Box Tree Moths and the Box Tree Caterpillars after battling with them for the past 4 years.
According to the RHS website, the Box Tree Moths arrived in the UK from Asia around 2007, but it wasn't until 2011 that they started appearing in private gardens. The RHS have an online survey so if you spot these in your UK gardens, you should record it, so they can track and trace it all. If you take a look on their map, you will see that London and the Home Counties (the areas surrounding London) have been the worst hit and as I am in Essex, I am right slap bang in the middle of it all.
So as I said, I have spent the past 4 years putting out the traps and religiously filling them twice a year with the Solabiol pheromone solution (to catch the male moth before he finds his female), and also spraying the Boxwoods themselves with XenTari, a solution which kills the caterpillar.
I worked out how much this is all costing me and it comes to £100 per year (for my front and back gardens). I've already spent £400 (4 years x £100) and if I want to keep these Boxwoods for another 10 years ... well, that is going to cost me an incredible £1,000!
And even though I am spraying and doing all these things, it's still not working. The caterpillars are still chewing happily through my Boxwoods (Buxus) and it has all just become such a stressful experience.
So I have decided enough is enough. And today I am digging up and tossing 20 Boxwoods in my back garden. I don't yet know if I will find replacements (such as Japanese Holly - Ilex Crenata) and replicate the design I have already, or whether I will now completely redo this area with something different.
All I know for sure is that, and I am sad to have to say this, but I will never plant another Boxwood in my garden. I will be removing all the Boxwoods from my front garden another time.
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Have fun in your gardens!
Janette, The Enthusiastic Gardener
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The music in this video is called “Respire” by Ricardo From and is available on Epidemic Sounds.
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