MONTY Don has revealed some of his manicured plants could be under attack from “serious pests”, which he’s never seen before in his Herefordshire garden.
The Gardener’s World presenter, who brings BBC One viewers along his horticultural projects at his Longmeadow home, took to social media to reveal that his shrubs had come under attack from Box Moth, which he’s never seen “in this part of the world”.
Posting a picture of well-maintained plants on Instagram, Don said: “These box cones on the cricket pitch have been free of blight whilst almost all the other box plants in the garden got afflicted.
“But now they have box moth, which is the first that I’ve come across in this part of the world.
“I’m very tempted to take them out and start again with something new rather than trying to combat the moth.
“However I will leave it for another year and see how it develops.”
Sympathising with Don, one commenter from Warwickshire revealed that the moths had “decimated” some of his plants, two of which were over three decades old.
“Have given up and they have all now gone,” they said.
“Very sad but exploring the alternatives now.”
Another commenter, from the East Midlands, shared their advice with Don, confirming that one technique had helped keep the population at bay.
They said: “Finding the moth traps very effective at capturing the moths and numbers have gone down considerably.”
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According to the Royal Horticultural Society, box moths produce larvae of box tree caterpillars that feed on the evergreen shrubs.
The RHS believes the first moth arrived some years ago in the UK in 2007, but caterpillars were not reported in gardens until 2011.
Four years later, the moth had become “established” in the capital and surrounding areas, with the insects now posing a problem for growers in the south-east of the UK.
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Gardner’s World Magazine says the pests form a “cobweb-like” webbing over their feeding area and “devour” the box leaves.
When attempting to prevent caterpillars from nesting in their prized shrubs, gardeners are told to “be vigilant”, as the creatures can be hard to spot.
Removal techniques include by hand, using pesticides, and laying synthetic pheromone traps, which need to be replaced frequently.
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