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Box plant

elainegrove2020elainegrove2020 Posts: 4
in Problem solving
hi there, I’m a new gardener and was given some lovely healthy box plants in planters last summer. They have just recently started looking unhealthy and have little white eggs and green pellets on them. Can anyone help with advice on what to do for them? 
With thanks
paula  

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  • elainegrove2020elainegrove2020 Posts: 4
    A little addition: I think I’ve now found a caterpillar so I suspect it is box caterpillar. 
    Should I trim them all the way back this autumn? Or is that too drastic? 
    I’ve looked up sprays and am very keen to have something safe to use for birds, bees, the dog, etc. 
    Does anyone have experience with Richard Jackson’s Box Shine & Cleanse? Thanks!
  • AthelasAthelas Posts: 946
    I’ve used Xentari (bought from Amazon) for box tree moth caterpillars. It’s a powder that dissolves in water and is sprayed on the box plant — I push the branches apart to spray all the leaf surfaces inside the plant. It’s some kind of bacteria (?) which affects only the caterpillars when they ingest the leaves, so is not supposed to be harmful to other wildlife or pets.
    Cambridgeshire, UK
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    It looks like the dreaded box caterpillar.  Gardeners' World the TV programme have had to grub out all their box parterre.

    So get on top of it.  I noticed a few bare stems and white leaves at the end of last season too late to do anything.  No actual caterpillars.  I am ready this season.  I have srayed the biggest with systemic insecticide and am watching the others.  No signs of caterillars yet.  May be the hot weather.  May be the wet.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    The buxus hedging on GW was removed because they had dreadful problems with box blight - not because of box caterpillars.

    @elainegrove2020 - I'm afraid that does look like caterpillar damage. Take a look at the RHS website which will give info about recommended treatments - there are a lot of experiments going on at the moment to see if there are any successful (organic) deterrents. Unfortunately it's likely to be a problem you'll have to deal with each year if you decide to keep the plants.

    Somewhere I have a recipe for homemade box caterpillar treatment which may be nicer to use than a systemic insecticide. I'll see if I can find it.
    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    This is the recipe - no idea how well it works but might be worth a try:

    250ml water

    3tsp Neem oil (easy to find on-line)

    1tsp lavender or rosemary oil

    Squirt washing up liquid or liquid soap

    Mix in spray bottle and mist over whole plant, especially around the base. Keep your pets away for a few hours at least. Use it fortnightly or more often if heavy rain. It does smell strong, but works SO well.

    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    Insects and arachnids do not have lungs.  You can kill them by coating them with oil or with soap solution.

    Vegetable oil is best; cheapest rapeseed good enough.  Try Topbird's recipe missing out the lavendar/rosemary oil that is just for perfume.  
    Don't forget to shake up hard to emulsify the mixture.
     
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    @bédé  I can't remember where I found that recipe and haven't needed to use it - but I think the spray is intended to be used as a deterrent rather than a pesticide per se.

    I think the smell itself is the deterrent - so reducing it would render it ineffective.
    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited August 2021
    Topbird, noted.  My solution (emulsion actually) would work by suffocating the offenders.

    By the way do you have a non-DEET recipe to repell ticks?  I have had 15 (yes 15) tick attacks this year.  I think this needs a discussion of its own.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    @bédé the problem with emulations that ‘suffocate the offenders’ is that they also suffocate the beneficial insects too 😢 

    Driving them off with  a deterrent is not going to kill ladybirds, lacewings etc. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited August 2021
    Just direct the spray at the offending area.   Deterrents will drive off the good as well as the bad.

    I have actually seen very little insect life in my box.  And I do look.  Except a rather sticky white thing that might be a type of aphid and bit like the leaf-curling insects I get on my bay trees.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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