Plant sap-sucking aphids such as aphids or scale insects can be found on almost all plants, including boxwood, of course. In order to avoid serious damage, you should take appropriate countermeasures at the first sign. The chemical mace is not always the first choice.
Lice like to infest box trees
aphids
Green aphids prefer to infest the soft shoot tips of the boxwood, on which they multiply extremely rapidly and also colonize neighboring plants within a very short time. The animals are able to jump far and thus migrate from one box tree to the next, but usually do not change the plant species. Typical signs of an infestation with the boxwood aphid are:
- In particular, the leaves at the tips of the shoots become spoon-shaped.
- Shoot tips can curl up like cabbages.
- White, fluffy dots can be seen on the leaves.
- This is easy-to-remove waxy wool intended to protect the larvae.
Aphid larvae hatch between April and May and develop into adults within a few weeks. These in turn lay new eggs in August, which then protect the next generation for the coming year over the winter. Typical side effects of an aphid infestation are, for example:
- leaves sticky with honeydew
- Increased occurrence of ants, which literally milk the aphids because of the honeydew
- sometimes black coating on the leaves, which is a sooty mold fungus
Control aphids
Affected shoot tips should already be cut off during the larval development period between April and May and disposed of with the household waste. There are also a number of proven home remedies that are effective against aphids. Spray treatments with cooled black tea or a mixture of whole milk and water make sense for a less severe infestation.
scale insects
If the leaves and shoots of the boxwood turn brown and dry up apparently without reason, you should examine the underside of the leaves carefully: If you can see long, small and dark-colored bumps here, it is the comma scale insect. Here, too, the animals hibernate as eggs on the plant, only to hatch as larvae the following spring. Oil-containing preparations based on neem or rapeseed oil have proven effective as control measures.
tips
If there are numerous white colored flakes on the box tree in the merry month of May, it is by no means a pest. Instead, you will witness a completely natural phenomenon where the white, waxy covering of the fresh leaves is shed during budding. Countermeasures are not required.