Inspired by you I also bought two spiral green mountain boxwoods and planted in front of my house this year. In the spring I found one of them was infested with the caterpillars so I sprayed the BTK (~ 2L since my boxwoods are small and there were not a lot of caterpillars) and haven't found one since. Good to hear it also works for you!
Hi Tracy and I’m so sorry to hear you now have the boxtree moths and caterpillars over in the States! They arrived here in the UK a few years back and I battled them in my beautiful row of boxtree hedges for a few years, I had the moth traps and did lots of spraying for a couple of years. Trouble here is that it rains a lot which washed it off a lot. Anyway, I ended up taking all my boxwoods out after about 2 years of trying to keep on top of mine (I’m not saying this to put you off, only telling you my story) and replaced them with a row of euonymus instead which is now looking just as nice. I do hope you manage to control yours, I think the key is anticipating the two cycles each year and spraying before the eggs hatch, and the eggs overwinter too and hatch around March time. Good luck with yours ❤ it’s devastating these moths have travelled over to you! All the best, Janette x
I had them moth free for 5 years. The moths came to our garden last year and now all the boxwoods in our neighborhood have them. I’m trying to see if I could control them with the BTK sprays…if not I may have to consider removing them. Thank you 🙏
Hi Tracy. I love your gardens. I was watching an older video and saw the obelisk that you used for your roses. Can you tell me where I can find a similar one? I also love the blue trellis that has squares that you use for climatis. I think you said you got it from Lowes. I can't find it here. I am crazy about hydrangeas. I live in East Tennessee (zone 7b) where the summers are very hot and I don't have any shade. The panicle hydrangeas do well here. Thank you for your inspiration.
I hope it works on yours. I had to spray our boxwoods with BTK and it worked this time. I did have to spray it twice this spring to make sure. The next cycle of the moth will be here in later summer…we will have to spray again. 🤨 Happy gardening!
Hi Tracy, thank you for sharing this video. Do you Calibrachoas also get caterpillars from the cabbage moth butterfly and do you do the same procedure? Thank you.
It is not the cabbage moth that lays its eggs on the boxwood. This is a new pest and it's my understanding it's only in Ontario, Canada right now and not in the USA yet. It's the Box tree moth and it came from Asia. It's a different pest that lays eggs on petunias etc (bud worm) and we don't appear to get it in Ontario but do see it on roses and it's not the same as eggs from the cabbage buttery which only lays its eggs on cabbage, broccoli etc which we do get!!
Yes, BTK will work for all the caterpillars 🐛 named on their label. Hope you can get them under controlled. It’s sad they to see our plants suffer and unable to grow. 💚🙏💚
