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…