Buffalo, NY( WBEN) If you have a boxwood plant, chances are you've had to deal with a moth that feeds on those leaves. One gardening expert says you can still protect them from being killed.
Chris Zeisz of Russell's Tree and Shrub Farm says the Box moth is an insect that entered WNY about five years ago,. "It started up in Niagara County, Lewiston, Youngstown. It came over from Canada, and what it is, is these insects and caterpillars eventually start feeding on the boxwood from the inside of the plant, and within two days they can decimate an entire plant," says Zeisz. He says if that happens to your plant, that's not the end of the world. "If you were to treat the plant, even after that happened with a Bonide product called Eight. "Then there's some other BT type products you can spray on there that will kill the insect, and then within three weeks the box would start to release and grow new leaves again," says Zeisz.
He says you have to spray once a month, starting in spring. "This year they started feeding in April, obviously the winter didn't hurt them, didn't matter how cold it was. So they started feeding in April, and they go all the way through to September," says Zeisz. He says they go through two generations in a season. He says if it does not get treated, the box moth will start feeding on the bark, and eventually that will kill the plant.
There's another bug to worry about. "Eventually the Japanese beetles will start, and they come out and they feed on a variety of different plants, a lot of the red leaf shrubs, whether it's Prunus, the Sinai, or Sand Cherry," says Zeisz. "They love linden trees, roses, they'll go after the flowers of a rose." He says there are different sprays that are contact killers that'll kill the beetles. "Also, there's some that are systemic, so the insect still feeds on the plant that when it ingests that, it's going to kill them. There are Japanese beetle traps, but I always recommend you put them in the farthest corner of your yard, because basically you're going to be attracting them from all over the place," suggests Zeisz.
He says you can't really take proactive measures, it's just part of gardening. "It's always kind of funny, we go through a winter like we had, it was so cold and windy and harsh, and it did not affect the bug population one bit. So, one of the proactive things for the Japanese beetles, as I mentioned, was to treat your lawn with a soil insecticide that'll take care of that issue. There's also products from Bayer, there are systemic type products you could sprinkle around the base of certain plants, especially birch trees for leaf miner, etc. And they draw that up into the root system, right up into the canopy, so when the insect seeds on the plant, the insect dies before it really causes any serious damage to your plant material," adds Zeisz.
Expert says spraying can save your plant even after moth starts invading
Expert says spraying can save your plant even after moth starts invading
