Box tree caterpillar

I have found box tree caterpillar on a large bush in my Essex garden.spray did not get rid of this and I have resorted to picking off the caterpillars.has any one found a good way of dealing with this pest?

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Hello. I'm in the south of France, and just discovered that all the box hedges in our garden are infested with this. I was wondering whether "defoliated" in the this case means that the plant itself is _destroyed_ (right now that's how they look!) — or is it just that this year's leaves are temporarily devoured?

What birds predate on these varmints ? My advice and experience suggests that we encourage the birds to come and develop a taste for these pests. Their eyesight and little beaks are the best long term way of dealing with most pests. Sprays usually deter predators and lots of "friends". Good hunting !!

Hello. There are box tree moth caterpillars all over Fulham SW6 at Parsons Green and running up to the river. Every hedge and plant we have seen has evidence of webs, caterpillars with varying degrees of defoliation. Just to let you know. We have emailed your special address for this also.

Hello. There are box tree moth caterpillars all over Fulham SW6 at Parsons Green and running up to the river. Every hedge and plant we have seen has evidence of webs, caterpillars with varying degrees of defoliation. Just to let you know. We have emailed your special address for this also.

Box tree caterpillars in Chingford (London E4), have tried picking off but am fighting a losing battle.

We have a garden of about 1 ha in SW France which has a box parterre grown over the last 10 years, a group of quite old topiary box & 2 small box hedges, all some distance from each other. About a month ago, when the new growth was about 3 to 4 cm long I found about 20 caterpillars on a 1 metre length of hedge. I then found them on every other box in the garden, on 2no box balls in my neighbour's garden and all over another garden with lots of box about 3 kilometers away. I visited a well-known box parterre at Hautefort last week, about 40 km away & could find no evidence of them at all. It was impossible to contemplate removing them all by hand, so we sprayed very thoroughly with 'Bug Clear', which we use for greenfly. It seems to have worked, as they were all dead the following day & I have not found a single live one since. We were lucky that we had just postponed a return to England. If we had left them behind we would have returned to devastation. I am now starting to cut the box & this has revealed extensive damage below the new growth, with dozens of webs. We shall probably spray again in the autumn & go through the plants with a fine tooth comb to try to stop any overwintering.

I have a magnificent box hedge around my veg garden planted about 20 years ago. Yesterday I found two box moths and today another. Do the pheromone traps work? Would they be the best thing to use now before the caterpillars appear. I also saw some moths that were completely brown, but failed to catch them. The white moths were stationery on the box leaves and were easy to catch and squash. Inside there was bright yellow material, presumably the eggs. I live in Siena Province, Italy.

We are in our third year of box tree moth attack. On the advice of the Basel Uni Botanical Dept, we spray all our boxes throughly with Kendo (lamb-cyhalothrin) as soon as we spot an attack and repeat this 3 weeks later. So far, this seems to work but don't mess around with garden centre products or biological controls- you will lose your plants.

Hello! I am from Georgia. I have in my garden very old Colchica Buxus trees about 300 years old. They icredible bautiful! These days discovered that our trees are hedges with caterpillars:((((. What will we do??? :(((( Help us!

Just returned to Battersea near the Park from fortnight on holiday to find box hedge has been attacked by this caterpillar which appears to produce copious quantities of small green cous cous-like material. Thanks to this site. I now know what is responsible. Off to get some pesticide.

Just returned to Battersea near the Park from fortnight on holiday to find box hedge has been attacked by this caterpillar which appears to produce copious quantities of small green cous cous-like material. Thanks to this site. I now know what is responsible. Off to get some pesticide.

Here in Provence we have been struggling to deal with this creature for the last five years, and in my opinion the key is frequency of spraying. At that time, the only product which helped was D6, but there are now several reasonably good solutions available. However, unless spraying is carried out every TWO WEEKS, caterpillars reappear and the damage is dramatic and swift. We have lost in excess of 2,000 Euros-worth of plants over the years, so do NOT dismiss this as a temporary irritation.

I am near to Battersea Park too and two 40cm Box Spheres were destroyed in less than 48 hours. I have been determined not to spray and fed the caterpillars to the ducks. After hearing the publicity I am going to spray.

Any guidance on identifying these caterpillars please? I have a plague of VERY similar looking caterpillars currently destroying stocks in my garden in South Devon - could they be box tree caterpillars? Or do they only eat box? Is there are way to tell them apart from other species please?

Any guidance on identifying these caterpillars please? I have a plague of VERY similar looking caterpillars currently destroying stocks in my garden in South Devon - could they be box tree caterpillars? Or do they only eat box? Is there are way to tell them apart from other species please?

Saturday in South Woodford E18. Caterpillar damage (to varying degrees) discovered in three gardens this morning. Reluctantly will spray, urgently - seems no other way to overcome the infestation.

I felt guilty relief when my neighbour showed me his box hedge caterpillar infestation today (Wormley, Hertfordshire) in the knowledge that I don't have box hedge in my garden! However, within the hour, I happened to notice that the leaves of a horseradish plant in my garden had been decimated, and recognised the same caterpillars as the culprits! These caterpillars clearly have a broader appetite than has been hitherto discussed!

I am also in south woodford london and have noticed in the last week that my beautiful topiary bushes are all but fast disappearing from right infront of me and no amount of trips to b&q to buy stuff to spray on them seems to be helping

We are under attack in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, hedges and topiary have been decimated, have found spraying doesnt work, was suggested using a high powered hose to wash them off, that didnt work either, there was an article in the Daily Mail, where it was suggested a Pheramone Trap failing that picking off the caterpillars is the only thing that might seem to work having said that the damage has already been done I feel we are all fighting a losing battle!

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I am also in south woodford london and have noticed in the last week that my beautiful topiary bushes are all but fast disappearing from right infront of me and no amount of trips to b&q to buy stuff to spray on them seems to be helping

I am also in south woodford london and have noticed in the last week that my beautiful topiary bushes are all but fast disappearing from right infront of me and no amount of trips to b&q to buy stuff to spray on them seems to be helping

I am also in south woodford london and have noticed in the last week that my beautiful topiary bushes are all but fast disappearing from right infront of me and no amount of trips to b&q to buy stuff to spray on them seems to be helping

My box balls seem to decimated from the inside of the balls with greenish eggs inside. Can someone diagnose the problem please?

We live in the Tarn, SW France where the box tree caterpillar or pyrale de buis has been established for about 2 years. We have treated with Xentari, the bacillus thuringiensis every two months during the hatching season - this targets the caterpillars and DOES NOT KILL other insects. It is effective. We have also hung pheremone traps to catch the adult male moths. DON'T GIVE UP.

I live in Wanstead in East London. I have spotted box catapillers on several of my box plants which I have disposed!

Half a dozen spotted and hopefully successfully dealt with in the last couple of weeks in NN15. Garden adjacent to wheat field

Can anyone tell whether box tree caterpillars are also attracted to other plants, such as Nasturtium and Wasabi? I have founds dozens in the last two weeks eating the above plants in Rutland area

I live near Cologne. The Rhineland is strongly affected by the box caterpillar. I'm fighting in the third year. The become active here from March / April on. In May the 1st generation pupates, the flight and the first oviposition follows mid-June. By an interval of 5-6 weeks two more generations follow, depending on weather conditions. The larvae of the 3rd generation overwinter in cocoons between the leaves and in the bark. You can combat the larvae of different sprays. The problem is to find the right time to actually hit the larvae, which are protected in the box in a web. I have tried thiacloprid (Calypso), neem and Bacillus thuringiensis (XenTari). With Bacillus thuringiensis I have achieved the best results. But that may be due to the growth of experience. I think the timing of spraying is decisive. The mentioned sprays are effective against the young caterpillars. Therefore I now spray 2-3 weeks after the start of the flight of each generation. At that time the small caterpillars are on the go. And I thoroughly moisten the plants from inside and outside. In my garden are numerous topiary box , some of them very large and quite old. I hope that the birds finally develop appetite for the larvae. Until then I'm looking for the moths. Can anyone share experience with the use of nematodes?

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We've had this infestation this summer and picked off caterpillars, sprayed and fertilized. In the last few days wood pigeons have been all over the box bushes (4 of them this morning) we wonder if they have developed a taste for the caterpillars? The bushes are recovering well.

I realise I saw this in my garden in Loughton, Essex, about 6 weeks ago. I thought it was very pretty but couldn't find it on the Web. Now I know what it looks like, I will warn our friends.

I realise I saw this in my garden in Loughton, Essex, about 6 weeks ago. I thought it was very pretty but couldn't find it on the Web. Now I know what it looks like, I will warn our friends.

I went away for a month and came back to find almost every buxus hedge decimated and caterpillars. I have now liberally sprayed the hedge but should I cut the hedge back?

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I went away for a month and came back to find almost every buxus hedge decimated and caterpillars. I have now liberally sprayed the hedge but should I cut the hedge back?

I went away for a month and came back to find almost every buxus hedge decimated and caterpillars. I have now liberally sprayed the hedge but should I cut the hedge back?

I went away for a month and came back to find almost every buxus hedge decimated and caterpillars. I have now liberally sprayed the hedge but should I cut the hedge back?

I went away for a month and came back to find almost every buxus hedge decimated and caterpillars. I have now liberally sprayed the hedge but should I cut the hedge back?

I went away for a month and came back to find almost every buxus hedge decimated and caterpillars. I have now liberally sprayed the hedge but should I cut the hedge back?

I went away for a month and came back to find almost every buxus hedge decimated and caterpillars. I have now liberally sprayed the hedge but should I cut the hedge back?

I went away for a month and came back to find almost every buxus hedge decimated and caterpillars. I have now liberally sprayed the hedge but should I cut the hedge back?

I have about 15ft of 2ft high well established box hedging, planted 10 years ago(at exactly the same time my golf club planted around the first tee. I sprayed with Provado (April May and June) with a "forceful" sprayer, hand picked the varmints off as well. My hedge survives. The golf club hedge (sprayed once) has been decimated. All is not lost however. I haven't found a caterpillar for several days in the heatwave, yet even the golf club hedge is recovering as plans were being made to grub it up. I will keep alert as info suggests the moth is active until October. Incidentally I bought a pheramone trap, marketed as an anti moth measure. Don't be fooled like me, professionals sometimes use them to see if the moths are about, they are not a solution. My trap scored no moths as my hedge was being munched. Save the thirty quid and buy more insecticidal chemicals rather than trying to sexually enrage the male moth! I had a solitary bush in my back garden, heavily infested and near total leaf loss. Cut back to the ground it is now sprouting merrily. Perhaps for this year the worst is over.

I live in New Malden, Surrey and was shocked to see how quickly my buxus planted in both pots and the ground were decimated. I initially noticed small brown patches appearing on the plants which I presumed was due to cats and foxes spraying the plants or perhaps the recent heatwave. However when the patches started to appear higher up on the buxus where it would have been impossible for the cats and the foxes to spray I became suspicious. After watching a recent Gardeners’ World programme that said box blight would not be a problem for the plants in the recent heatwave I realised there must be another problem. By the time I noticed the caterpillars on one of the plants there were so many that I had no choice but to spray all the buxus with insecticide. On close inspection all the buxus both at the front and rear of the house 19 in total had the caterpillars in varying degrees. It took a couple of days for the insecticide to have an effect and in that time a couple of the buxus had been stripped, leaving a brown lacework of leaves. I am not sure whether the buxus will recover but wish I had been aware of these caterpillars and moths so I could have kept a look out for them. There were far too many to pick off by hand and I have since noticed the buxus tree moth in my garden. I did not have as much of the webbing on my buxus as some of the photos on the web show,but I certainly will be more vigilant in the future.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

About 40% of my beloved parterre box hedging in south-east London was defoliated by box tree caterpillars when I was on holiday in July. On my return, I mistook the symptoms for drought damage, and ignored the smell of stale urine around the hedge. I now understand this was the smell of fresh caterpillar droppings. Ten days ago, I sprayed the entire hedge with a deltamethrin insecticide and set up a pheronome trap. To date, this has caught over 150 adult moths, so this seems to be a good thing, though I may have been lucky with the timing. It's probably helping other local gardeners with box plants, as I have watched several moths flying in over the garden boundaries and homing in on the trap. I will keep going with the trap, and spray again in a couple of weeks.

Sorry about the multiple repeats above - I pressed 'post' multiple times, thinking it hadn't worked.

I am actually in a town called Didam (s/e of Arnhem) in the Netherlands near the eastern border with Germany, so my apologies for appearing on this forum. Approx. 80 feet long x 2 feet high x 1 foot deep box hedge decimated over last few weeks along with established box bushes. Earlier in year did notice some webbing, however they were similar to webbing at former residence which weren't related to the box moth/caterpillar. About 5-6 weeks ago spotted and photographed a 'butterfly' which, actually upon research was the Box Moth. Currently wondering if anyone is aware of normal box caterpillar behaviour when food source is nearly depleted? Over the last 6 days (sept 7th thru to today 12th sept) the caterpillar has undertaken a mass migration away from the box hedges etc towards the house, climbing the walls, window/door frames and garden furniture - I have bished/bashed/squished/squashed nigh on 1000 of the fiends. There are still some chewing through the last vestiges of green foliage. Also does anyone know best course of action with the hedge: is it salvageable by either spraying, cutting back to main stems, or dig up/destroy and replant box moth resistant strains? Any and all advice greatly appreciated.

I have a lot of box hedging in my garden and spotted pupae on plants a couple of weeks ago. We have sprayed all the plants with Xentari biological treatment and set up Pheromone traps. In one week we've caught over 80 moths, I am having to empty the traps every couple of days and there is no sign of any new caterpillars or pupae. A great result well worth every penny !

I have a lot of box hedging in my garden and spotted pupae on plants a couple of weeks ago. We have sprayed all the plants with Xentari biological treatment and set up Pheromone traps. In one week we've caught over 80 moths, I am having to empty the traps every couple of days and there is no sign of any new caterpillars or pupae. A great result well worth every penny !