Guide to Removing Box Tree Caterpillars by Raking
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- The benefits and drawbacks (...beware!) of using the raking method to remove Box Tree Caterpillars, with an update on encouraging natural predators to the garden.
www.applepeafernsea.com
I have only discovered this caterpillar yesterday as never heard of it before . I have one box ball in my garden and noticed it looked different yesterday. Thought at first it was dying then saw these culprits. I have been manually picking them off with tweezers over the last two days. I have already picked off 40 on day one and at least 70 today . They are throughout the bush ,deep within so think raking just the outside will be missing loads deep inside the bush.
It sounds as though you are doing a really thorough job to rescue your inundated box ball, which will give others hope! Buxus is fairly pliable, and it is often possible to gently manipulate branches to do a deep clean but yes sometimes there are places the rake can’t easily access, especially if the plant is lovely and dense. Good luck and best regards.
thank you for sharing your experience with racking backfiring on you.
Thank you! As you can imagine, we’re still very careful to check for signs of blight before raking from one plant to the next!
My box hedges were devastated a few months ago, I've got a friend from Asia, he said spray with a mix of washing up liquid and water, i thought before i removed them it's cheap and worth a try, a couple of weeks later i noted new growth and no caterpillars, so i cut them back a bit, sprayed them again, that was in June, now absolutely fine, once a week i lightly spray with the washing up liquid to be on the safe side
Very glad to hear you’ve rescued your box hedges, this sounds like a promising solution (no pun intended!). Would you recommend diluting the washing-up liquid as per regular use, or applying in a more concentrated form? We suddenly have a great explosion of box moths flying around here after a relatively caterpillar-free summer, so we may have to test this out with some eco friendly liquid. I guess the environmental impact would be no different to that of the recycled grey water we are encouraged to water plants with in summer. Thank you so much for sharing the info.
@@ApplePeaFernSea I'm in Cambridgeshire, England, box hedges dead everywhere. I've got an industrial sprayer, i fill it with 10 litres of water a add a couple or squirts fairly liquid, and spray, i do pull on the hedge's to make sure it goes everywhere, thinking about it since i made the comment Mum and Dad used it a long time ago in the garden before the days of fancy modern products, for green and black fly
This Spring (2024), Ontario, Canada announced that the dreaded Box Tree Moth has arrived in Ontario and is spreading out of control. I have a nice Box wood hedge and thought that may be I will be spared this year. But no...while trimming the hedge, I noticed some damage and some webbing. On closer inspection I confirmed that this creepy-crawly has arrived uninvited to my garden. Very disappointed indeed.
Today (May 24th), I sprayed the hedge with BTK. I have to wait and see if this helps. Fingers crossed.
Such a shame the dreaded moths have reached your part of the world, I do hope your hedge survives. In the UK, we currently have to be professionally accredited to use btk but it does sound very effective as a targeted biological control. Good luck!
I used a stiff hand brush with nylon bristles .
Seemed to dislodge the little rascals quite well.
Time will tell.
Thanks for sharing this Kit, we love that you’re literally giving these pesky caterpillars the brush off!
Someone suggested using a pressure washer, so I'll probably add that to the arsenal.
Hopefully without damaging the plant.
This is very helpful but the music is loud 😅
We appreciate your honest feedback, thank you. It is good to know the video was helpful. Sending best wishes.
Box tree caterpillars have a very strong repellent taste to birds, their green colour apparently being a warning sign. most birds and obviously toads as well avoid.
Isn’t it frustrating that many of our feathered friends seem to find the caterpillars repellent/deterrent in appearance. Ornithological research has documented several birds including blackbirds, starlings, and sparrows eating the caterpillars (as well as the good old jackdaws) and we do wish this would happen in our garden!
I have just found your channel. Just lovely!!!! What a wonderful thing to be able to walk through a beautiful summer garden with your gentle commentary on a grotty autumn day such as this.
Thank you so much for your kind comment, we've very happy our summer garden could brighten the day!
OK, so a few issues with the rake method:
1) If done in spring, raking can remove delicate fresh shoots from the Buxus. (If you're going to do this, it's best to wait till autumn, when the leaves have hardened-i know, too late by then.)
2) As @ApplePeaFernSea pointed out, many box tree caterpillars 'mummify' themselves in webbed wrapping in cold weather (that's how they overwinter, fyi), and cannot be removed with a rake.
3) Loose box tree caterpillars fall to the ground when disturbed. An easy reach-unless they fall in the middle of a thick, wide box ball, where you can't get at them, and they'll make their comeback. (As one commenter, @Les-OZZYTHEOSCAR, alluded to.)
Also, similar to a freshly cut lawn, I found that box trees give off a stronger than usual scent when they are trimmed, which will attract a higher amount of female moths. So, best to trim boxes in late November (if in the UK). when the breeding season is over.
Thank you for sharing your interesting points. On plants where new shoots are to be retained rather than trimmed off in May/early June for a topiarised shape, it is possible that damage might occur with repeated raking. Hand picking is probably most effective to remove inactive overwintering caterpillars, although by the winter months many of us need psychological respite from two seasons of dedicated caterpillar hunting! If possible, sliding pieces of card or foam mats under plants can catch some of the hard-to-reach escapees. Some of Europe’s natural box woodlands, where plants are never trimmed, have been decimated in a similar pattern to ornamentally maintained garden box, but it’s an interesting suggestion to avoid attracting female moths by trimming in November.
Thank you,@@ApplePeaFernSea, for your thoughtful reply.
One clarification on trimmed Buxus I should respectfully point out: to your (correct) point, an untrimmed hedge won't prevent female moths from finding it, as they still give off a scent. However, if you place a untrimmed hedge adjacent to a smellier trimmed hedge, the moths will 'follow their nose' to the plant with the stronger scent.
Think of it as freshly cut grass, which we humans can smell from a distance, so you can imagine that to a moth-with a stronger sense of smell-a cut hedge is a "HEY, I'M OVER HERE!" beacon. (I have edited my comment to add the grass analogy.)
As but one case in point: my neighbour's trimmed hedges have significantly more caterpillars than his untrimmed ones.
Btw, I loved your "psychological respite from two seasons of dedicated caterpillar hunting" comment. (After hand-picking off 500 of them, I can relate!)
The grass analogy is very effective @perspicaciouscritic to illustrate your sound point. In fact, it is rather backed up by our experience: the box balls in our lavender beds have never been attacked, so perhaps lavender disguises the scent of both trimmed and untrimmed plants. We experimented a few years ago by spraying box cuttings with home-made rosemary solution and monitoring caterpillar activity on sprayed vs unsprayed branches: the rosemary-doused branches were untouched for about 12 hours. After that, I think the scent molecules dissipated and no longer deterred the caterpillars. So, I am wondering whether a rosemary spray could help disguise the immediate scent beacon when trimming box in moth season. Probably not a very practical idea, but thank you for making us think about the ‘caterpillar quest’ differently.