I`ve noticed an increase of box-tree moth records in my Llanelli garden trap over the last couple of years, with any reduction in 2024 simply due to me trapping less. I have a short length (c 15ft+) of tall box, planted in c 1980, which performs a valuable privacy screen as well as a nesting site for birds. It is only very lightly pruned in the winter and is not tightly manicured. I had hoped that this exceptionally light regime, when the cursed box moths are n`t around, may save my boxes from their rapacious caterpillars. This summer, I noticed a low box bush in a private garden at Stradey, Llanelli that had been decimated by box moth caterpillars - the box looks whiteish in colour with webbing, the result of eating frenzies and the webs in which the caterpillars reside.
A few weeks later I discovered a couple of caterpillars by some diagnostic white leaves on my boxes. These caterpillars were removed and I hoped that was it (for now, at least). However, whilst up lopping some branches on an adjacent tree last week, I noticed several hitherto unnoticed ex-larval `nests`. I`m afraid that they have likely defeated my efforts and disproved my hope that minimal winter pruning may avoid their colonisation. We`ll wait and see to what extent they`ll damage my old box hedge in 2025.
Numbers have crashed this year in Cardiff - I've had fewer than in 2022, with only one night where the trap was busy with them (33 on 21st September). I'm hoping they'll never return to 2023 numbers, especially as quite a few people have ripped out their box hedges now.
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