Boxwood pest from Asia
What is not imported from all over the world? Unfortunately, there is also a lot of things that are not necessarily desirable to import. Except for products that are due to the overexploitation of nature, child labor or other unacceptable things arise and should better not be imported and bought, sometimes uninvited "guests" sneak in a. One of those is the so-called boxwood moth. Not at home in Germany, it has nevertheless found its way from East Asia and is now greedily attacking the box tree in this country too. Read what you can do.
Boxwood (Buxus) is a very popular, versatile and widespread plant that is in principle very frugal and often grows healthy and vigorous over decades if it is properly cared for. Fertilization and pruning in the right proportions and at the right time are one side, the other is protection against diseases and pests.
Known pests and diseases
- A widespread box pest is the box flea, actually a louse. You can recognize it by a white coating on the leaves of the box tree. Unfortunately, this is no longer the beginning of the infestation, because at the very beginning you will see the small ones lice not at all at first, because they can hide very well in the thick foliage of the boxwood.
- Simply break off the shoots that are affected at first, sometimes this is enough. If not, use insecticides that work against lice.
- You can also use anti-lice remedies to combat scale insects and spider mites, which sometimes attack the boxwood. Heavy spider mite infestation unfortunately leads to the actually dense, green foliage of the boxwood becoming bald. So check your plants regularly and take action at the first sign of pest infestation.
- In addition to these well-known pests, your boxwood can also suffer from specific diseases. Boxwood rust (or boxwood cancer) is particularly common. This is a fungal disease that appears in the freshly cut areas especially after the cut and can initially affect individual leaves and later entire branches. You can recognize the infestation with this fungus by the yellow / orange discoloration of the leaves. Heavy infestation can cause branches to die off completely.
- So remove them generously and make sure that the affected branches are not on the compost to keep the fungus from spreading further. Since the fungus can grow far into the boxwood, sometimes even the topsoil has to be replaced.
The box is an evergreen and relatively robust deciduous wood. Although the boxwood ...
As if these weren't enough pests and diseases that can specifically affect the boxwood, another pest appeared a few years ago that is not easy to deal with. It is the boxwood moth, a small butterfly that is native to Asia and was apparently brought to Europe with the transport of goods.
The box tree moth - an uninvited guest from East Asia
- The damage to the box tree is caused by eating, namely by the caterpillars of this small butterfly. So if your boxwood turns light beige and you discover leaf veins or remaining stems or stems. even if the green bark has already been eaten down to the wood and the ones above If parts of the plant threaten to die off, then it may be Diaphania perspektalis - and that is not Well.
- The box tree moth spins the whole plant, and the larvae hibernate in these webs and begin from March with the feed, then go through several larval stages and then still live as adult moths approx. eight days in which they lay eggs again. Up to three generations of this pest can develop each year.
- For you - in the allotment garden - the best way to combat the borer is by collecting caterpillars and removing the webs regularly all year round. The caterpillars are striped black and white and have black spots and white bristles. Also look for the pest and its webs in the immediate vicinity of your boxwood plants, because they can also overwinter there. Only the eggs are actually preferably laid directly on the boxwood.
- With insecticides you only get a limited amount of the box tree moth. In the first larval stage, i.e. when it eats the leaves within the web, it does not work chemically at all. Only later can you be lucky. B. try with the active ingredient azadirachtin (e.g. B. in malicious neem). Make sure that you wet your boxwood completely, especially inside the bush.
- Since the exact distribution and potential for harm the boxwood moth is still not fully understood, consider one It is essential to report suspected infestation to appropriate agricultural / horticultural technical advisors so that the spread can be contained over a large area can.
