Caterpillars killed my bush. What now?

[NMNeil]

Simpo Two said:

Ah I thought you were across the pond! We call it oilseed rape

I had no idea so I looked it up and it has the same insecticide properties no matter what it's called.
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/aeru/bpdb/Reports/2528.ht...

[motco]

NMNeil said:

Simpo Two said:

Ah I thought you were across the pond! We call it oilseed rape

I had no idea so I looked it up and it has the same insecticide properties no matter what it's called.
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/aeru/bpdb/Reports/2528.ht...

Well I'm going to give it a try! Thanks NMNeil

[RichB]

Simpo Two said:

... We call it oilseed rape

Or even rapeseed oil...

p.s. so basically cooking oil and a dash of washing-up liquid. I assume this will suffocate the insects because they breath through their skin. The detergent will be the emulsifier and the oil will block the pores if the skin.

Edited by RichB on Tuesday 24th May 22:25

[motco]

RichB said:

Simpo Two said:

... We call it oilseed rape

Or even rapeseed oil...

p.s. so basically cooking oil and a dash of washing-up liquid. I assume this will suffocate the insects because they breath through their skin. The detergent will be the emulsifier and the oil will block the pores if the skin.

Edited by RichB on Tuesday 24th May 22:25

Nah! They get fat and unhealthy and die from heart disease!

[RichB]

[Diderot]

Diderot said:

We’ve had ours decimated by the bds last year. Thanks for the advice above, will give that a try.

Just to report that the box hedge that was on its last legs has almost fully recovered because of the advice on this thread. We were at the point of calling it a day, and digging it all out, but now it’s flourishing and almost completely back to normal. Mrs D wanted me to thank you chaps.

[motco]

Diderot said:

Diderot said:

We’ve had ours decimated by the bds last year. Thanks for the advice above, will give that a try.

Just to report that the box hedge that was on its last legs has almost fully recovered because of the advice on this thread. We were at the point of calling it a day, and digging it all out, but now it’s flourishing and almost completely back to normal. Mrs D wanted me to thank you chaps.

Which particular advice did you follow? I have sprayed mine with the rapeseed oil concoction but I have no idea if it has done anything apart from emitting a weird pong.

[Diderot]

motco said:

Diderot said:

Diderot said:

We’ve had ours decimated by the bds last year. Thanks for the advice above, will give that a try.

Just to report that the box hedge that was on its last legs has almost fully recovered because of the advice on this thread. We were at the point of calling it a day, and digging it all out, but now it’s flourishing and almost completely back to normal. Mrs D wanted me to thank you chaps.

Which particular advice did you follow? I have sprayed mine with the rapeseed oil concoction but I have no idea if it has done anything apart from emitting a weird pong.

It was the Top Buxus thing Motco which we ordered on Amazon (comes from Holland iirc).

[motco]

Diderot said:

motco said:

Diderot said:

Diderot said:

We’ve had ours decimated by the bds last year. Thanks for the advice above, will give that a try.

Just to report that the box hedge that was on its last legs has almost fully recovered because of the advice on this thread. We were at the point of calling it a day, and digging it all out, but now it’s flourishing and almost completely back to normal. Mrs D wanted me to thank you chaps.

Which particular advice did you follow? I have sprayed mine with the rapeseed oil concoction but I have no idea if it has done anything apart from emitting a weird pong.

It was the Top Buxus thing Motco which we ordered on Amazon (comes from Holland iirc).

Thanks Diderot

[sleepezy]

sleepezy said:

We have quite a bit of box and use Xentari to pretty good effect in keeping them at bay. Tend to spray everything 3 times a year and again if we see the impact of an infection.

A quick heads up to my fellow box loving PHers that our friendly critters are back already so you may want to give your hedges a quick blast.

Shame, I thought we might have an easy year given the cold winter, not so.

[Diderot]

sleepezy said:

sleepezy said:

We have quite a bit of box and use Xentari to pretty good effect in keeping them at bay. Tend to spray everything 3 times a year and again if we see the impact of an infection.

A quick heads up to my fellow box loving PHers that our friendly critters are back already so you may want to give your hedges a quick blast.

Shame, I thought we might have an easy year given the cold winter, not so.

Yep they are, Mrs D has been spraying last week. They were back in numbers too.

[yellowjack]

Sprayed my hedge last week. My neighbour gave me a heads up after hers started getting eaten. I've seen no caterpillars on my hedge, but when we got back there were signs that they'd started chomping away at it, only to have stopped almost immediately. I'm hoping this means the spray has worked.

The hedge was reduced to twigs last years, literally. But it's recovering this year, so I want to keep the caterpillars under control to give it the best chance to fully recover.

Does anyone know how long the "stuff" lasts once it's mixed? My hedge isn't huge so I only need about two thirds of the liquid to go over it twice, but I don't know if it's good to keep it mixed up, if I spray again with the same batch in a week or a fortnight will the solution still work?

[otolith]

Having repeatedly insisted that buying box was pointless because these little bds would have it, my OH returned from the garden centre at the weekend with two box plants for her new pots. Oh well. We'll see.

[sleepezy]

yellowjack said:

Does anyone know how long the "stuff" lasts once it's mixed?

I think it's just a chemical rather than 'alive' so should last a week or so I'd have thought.

Good to hear your bush has recovered too.

[RichB]

sleepezy said:

yellowjack said:

Does anyone know how long the "stuff" lasts once it's mixed?

I think it's just a chemical rather than 'alive' so should last a week or so I'd have thought.
Good to hear your bush has recovered too.

If he's talking about Nematodes they are certainly 'alive'. They're a micro organism that enters the box moth caterpillar and kills it.

[otolith]

RichB said:

If he's talking about Nematodes they are certainly 'alive'. They're a micro organism that enters the box moth caterpillar and kills it.

Not nematodes in this case, bacteria.

[T5GRF]

Yes it’s a bacteria. I’ve used leftover solution 2 weeks after making it up and it seemed to still nuke the bds.
I’ve been spraying last weekend too as they’re back.
I sprayed every 14 days last spring/summer until October and it worked a treat - my plants have never looked more healthy.
Hopefully the bloody birds will start learning to eat the caterpillars….

[Paul Lazzaro]

Ours have recovered from what appeared to be an unrecoverable position last year too.

Interestingly, we did have some sparrows eating the caterpillars towards the end of summer. Hopefully they keep that up this year because we're spending a bloody fortune on that stuff from Amazon.

[RichB]

Paul Lazzaro said:

Interestingly, we did have some sparrows eating the caterpillars towards the end of summer. Hopefully they keep that up this year because we're spending a bloody fortune on that stuff from Amazon.

Indeed, it's expensive buying the stuff throughout the summer!

[motco]

I made up the canola (rapeseed) oil concoction mentioned earlier. Seems to have worked last year but it has yet to be applied this time. Makes the bushes smell like a cheap burger van though.