The boxwood moth is a harmful insect belonging to the grass moth family. This insect is native to the countries of East Asia: China, India, Japan, Korea and the Far East in Russia. This pest was brought to Europe, and in particular to Southern Germany, from China with planting material.
The appearance of the boxwood moth was first recorded in 2006. At the same time, this pest was included in the list of the most dangerous insects in Europe. Two years later, in 2008, this pest became an environmental problem in 5 European countries, which included England, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In 2009, Austria and France joined this number of countries, and in 2011 – Romania, Hungary and Turkey.
Such a rapid invasion of European territory by the boxwood moth also affected Russia.
This happened in preparation for the Winter Olympic Games during the landscaping of the area with planting materials brought from other countries.
In 2012, evergreen spherical boxwood was delivered to the territory of the city of Sochi from Italy to improve public places. And already in 2013, this harmful insect became an acute environmental problem in the Krasnodar region. In such a short time, it managed to spread throughout the city of Sochi and harm both old boxwood plantings and renovated green areas. Thus, the boxwood moth became a serious forest pest.
Appearance of an insect
An adult butterfly is a fairly large insect with a wingspan of up to 45 mm. The eyes are large, convex, dark in color. The wings are wide, rounded, consisting of many longitudinal narrow segments like a fan. The color of the wings is light blue, along the edges
there is a brown edging, the bottom is framed by short thin hairs in the form of a fringe. The moth's antennae are long, thread-like. The labial tentacles are extended forward and are shaped like a beak. The wings in a calm state are folded like a house.
The larvae are born yellowish-green in color. The length of the young larva is 1-2 mm. The head is large and black. The larva develops within 3-4 weeks, during which it increases in size to 3.5-4 cm. As the larva matures, the color of the larva changes to darker, and black and white lines form on the sides. There is 1 thick black line and several thin white lines on each side. Dark, raised dots also appear on the larva’s body.
Evergreen plants on the Black Sea coast are destroyed by a dangerous pest
Ecologists of Kuban are looking for ways to combat a recently appeared pest - the boxwood moth, which has destroyed significant areas of evergreen plants on the coast. Infected plants were found in Sochi, Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk and Krasnodar. The boxwood trees of the Khosta yew-boxwood grove are affected by the pest over almost the entire area. The pest was first discovered in 2012 in a nursery of planting material intended for landscaping the Olympic Village.
An interdepartmental meeting was held in Sochi with the participation of specialists from the Sochi National Park, the Caucasus Biosphere Reserve, the Federal Budgetary Institution "Roslesozashchita" and environmentalists and public activists in connection with the threat to green spaces from a dangerous pest - the boxwood moth. The meeting discussed the coordination of actions of owners of green spaces (parks, sanatoriums, private households) for the simultaneous chemical treatment of plants within urban settlements. Experts also called for emergency measures to protect plantings in the wild. “The Khosta yew-boxwood grove (Caucasian Biosphere Reserve, grove area is about 300 hectares - Kommersant) is experiencing a severe anthropogenic disaster - insect larvae have rapidly spread to the entire area of the plantings. “At least 70% of the unique boxwood trees of the grove can be considered dead,” says the reserve’s information.
According to the Krasnodar branch of the FBU Roslesozashchita, the boxwood moth was also found in Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk and Krasnodar and in the Apsheronsky region. The pest affects evergreen boxwood, which is used for landscaping in populated areas, as well as relict Colchian boxwood. When infected with moth, the leaves and shoots become covered with loose cobwebs, after which the plant dries out.
Ecologists claim that the boxwood moth, that is, an East Asian species of moth that has never before been found in the European part of Russia, came to Sochi with imported (from Italy and Montenegro) boxwood seedlings during preparations for the Olympic Games. This assumption is based on the fact that moth caterpillars were first discovered in September 2012 in a nursery for the temporary holding of planting material intended for landscaping the main Olympic Village. Treatment of plants with insecticides did not lead to the death of all caterpillars; the pest began to multiply quickly, spreading from ornamental plantings to forest areas.
The fight against the pest is complicated by the fact that the boxwood moth on the Black Sea coast has no natural enemies - birds and insects, and those species that are enemies in the moth's homeland cannot be introduced into the Caucasus, since their interaction with local flora and fauna has not been studied . “In the natural distribution area of the moth, the average minimum temperature in January is –16.5˚C, so the mild winters of the Black Sea coast cannot be a limiting factor in the spread of the butterfly,” says Deputy Director of the Caucasus Nature Reserve Nikolai Eskin. “The only effective way to combat the boxwood moth in conditions of a yew-boxwood grove is chemical treatment, while the area of the forest areas to be treated is huge, the height of boxwood trees often exceeds six to eight meters, and the treatment must be carried out by ground method with spraying the drug to the state of fog. The open boundaries of the Khostinskaya Grove will inevitably lead to its repeated colonization by the moth. Russian institutes are urgently developing means of combating this insect, from ferromone traps to removing moth parasites, but all these measures require time, which the Khostinskaya Grove may no longer have.”
Reserve specialists fear that if the fight against the moth fails, not only the forest plant communities with the participation of boxwood, but also Colchian boxwood as a species will be at risk of extinction in the south of Russia. The directorate of the Caucasus Nature Reserve requested permission from the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources to use special chemicals (under normal conditions their use in the territories of state natural reserves is prohibited) in order to save at least the few remaining viable boxwood plants in the Khostinskaya Grove. Representatives of Sochi environmental organizations are ready to organize a gathering of volunteers to process forests.
Anna Perova, Krasnodar
Lifestyle and reproduction
The insect lays eggs on fresh green leaves on the reverse side. The diameter of the egg is about 1 mm. The larvae that emerge from them pass into the pupal stage after 3-4 weeks. The length of the pupa is 2.5-3 cm. After 10–15 days, the caterpillars turn into butterflies. In Russia, in the conditions of the Krasnodar Territory, the boxwood moth manages to be born in three generations within a year. But under particularly favorable climatic conditions, identical to the conditions of the natural habitat, the 4th generation of the insect also occurs. For wintering, the moth prepares a place for itself in the form of a cocoon, fixed in a thick web between the leaves of the boxwood.
Save boxwood from butterflies
During preparations for the Olympic Games, the Sochi city administration imported park boxwood seedlings from Italy, which, as it turned out, contained the larvae and caterpillars of the moth, a dangerous pest. Due to further thoughtless actions of specialists, an environmental disaster threatens not only the Krasnodar region, but also Abkhazia, Georgia, and Turkey. Currently, scientists are developing methods to combat invasion.
Italian infection
Strictly speaking, Italy is also in the position of a victim, since the moth is not a native species for it. There, as in other European countries, it was brought at the beginning of the 2000s from the Far East and Southeast Asia. There, due to the climate, the moth does not reproduce at the same rate as in the Mediterranean climate; moreover, in the Mediterranean it has no natural enemies: local birds do not eat its larvae and caterpillars, since they are poisonous to them. However, if not for the tyranny of officials, such a large-scale disaster could have been avoided. When examining the seedlings, specialists from the Sochi National Park immediately found moth larvae and caterpillars in them and advised them to burn the seedlings. But officials planted the ill-fated seedlings anyway, treating them with Actellik, which failed to kill all the pests. As a result, in the fall of 2012, the moth began to devour Sochi boxwood. First, boxwood plantations in Sochi were completely destroyed. In 2014, boxwood in the Sochi National Park was invaded. Scientists asked the Ministry of Natural Resources for permission to treat the boxwood areas in the national park with pesticides, but they refused, citing the law on specially protected natural areas. As a result, the Tisosamshitovaya Grove, a protected natural site, was destroyed by 70%.
All to fight the butterfly
In Russia, pest control is carried out with varying degrees of success. There is little investment in such projects; the most active struggle was carried out by the Sochi National Park at its own expense. It did not bring any significant improvements: essential oils, ozone-rich water, predatory wasps, and pheromone traps were tried. In Europe, they fight the moth with pesticides, but in Russia the Ministry of Natural Resources does not give the go-ahead to such a solution to the problem, guided by the letter of the law. In Adygea, where boxwood forests are not protected areas, it was possible to save areas that were treated with pesticides from the road with a hose. Forestry departments were unable to find investment to do this from the air. The breeding of a strain of parasitic fungi that affected moth caterpillars in the Sochi National Park was relatively successful. However, success is guaranteed only if after treatment it does not rain for 24 hours, washing away the mushrooms from the boxwood.
The largest project that has been considered by the Sochi city administration since 2015–2016 is the resettlement of the eulophid beetle, which feeds on the boxwood moth, to the Krasnodar region. In Southeast Asia, it is this species that regulates its numbers, which is why boxwood does not suffer to such an extent there. However, specialists from the Sochi National Park are skeptical about this event, since the beetle feeds not only on the boxwood moth, but also on other butterflies, including those listed in the Red Book. Eulophidae was used in the Moscow region to combat the nun silkworm, but in Sochi there is a more favorable climate for it to reproduce uncontrollably, which will affect the populations of the swallowtail and podalirium butterflies, listed in the Red Book.
Save boxwood
This year, events were held in Adygea to collect boxwood seeds for reintroduction. 10% of the seeds are collected, the remaining 90% must remain in nature. Volunteers collected the seeds on the territory of the Tsitsinsky forestry. In total, about three kilograms of ripened fruits with seeds were collected, which is a good result, since boxwood seeds are small and weigh less than a gram. Earlier, in 2018, in Apsheronsk (Krasnodar Territory), bordering Adygea, a greenhouse for growing boxwood was opened. This is a project of the World Wildlife Fund, which is being implemented on the territory of the Absheron Forestry Technical School. In three years, the seedlings obtained from the seeds planted in the nursery will be used to create a mother plantation; some of the seedlings will be planted in the wild. The investor in the project was the Wildlife Foundation itself, part of the money was received through donations from concerned citizens and a number of commercial structures. So far, 300 cuttings have been planted. The greenhouse, built on the territory of the technical school for growing boxwood, is designed to grow 25 thousand plants. Cultivation is expected to be combined: some of the plants will be planted in the form of cuttings, and some will be sowed with seeds. In total, the World Wildlife Fund received 2.5 million rubles for restoration; 11 companies allocated funds.
In Abkhazia, the situation is also complex: natural boxwood plantations remained only in the Bzyb River gorge, despite the fact that the moth population has nevertheless decreased; boxwood growth has also been observed under the canopy of dead boxwood forests. Methods for restoring boxwood and fighting the moth were discussed even at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers of the unrecognized state.
To preserve Colchis boxwood, a nursery was opened in Abkhazia. Boxwood has grown there for thousands of years, even surviving the Ice Age, but is now disappearing at a staggering rate. The situation in Abkhazia is bad, but there is still hope. Of the 15 thousand hectares of boxwood in the unrecognized republic, 4 remained untouched by the pest. A special nursery was created to preserve the remaining trees and begin the reintroduction of boxwood into the area.
Activists from the environmental group Apsabara are participating in a project supported by the Institute of the Environment of the Abkhaz Academy of Sciences and jointly funded by the European Union and the United Nations Development Program. The nursery was built near the village of Mgudzyrkhua in the Gudauta region. Planting material - cuttings - was taken from boxwood in the Bzyb Gorge. Cuttings take root 2–3 weeks after planting and can be moved to a nursery, and then, after 2 years, to the natural environment. In September 2021, approximately 10,000 cuttings were planted, with 2,000 already planted in the natural environment. Volunteers and caring people help the project.
Beyond the Caucasus
In Georgia, forestry does not have enough specialists to solve the problem. The condition of boxwood forests reached a critical level of decline in 2014. The Agency for Protected Areas under the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources was then forced to turn to the FLEG forestry law enforcement and management program, which has been in force in Georgia since 2009. Between June and December 2014, boxwood forests in Mtirala National Park, Kintrishi Protected Area and Ajameti Managed Nature Reserve were surveyed by specialists from Lviv, Ukraine. Soil and plant samples were examined in the laboratories of the Department of Forest Protection of the National Forestry University of Ukraine, at the Forest Research Institute in Warsaw, at the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, at the Italian University of Dibaf Tuschi in Viterbo. In 2015, senior specialist of the Department of Forestry and Reforestation Giorgi Mamadashvili, together with Ukrainian specialists, made a 16-day trip to 5 regions of Georgia, where a particularly wide spread of pests and mass death of boxwood trees were observed.
In 2015, a project for the treatment of the boxwood grove “Allur” was launched in the village of Salkhino in the Martvili municipality. Experts from international plant protection organizations have begun cleaning up 1,000 hectares of land that were initially treated with environmentally friendly thermal fog. As a result of these measures, a significant amount of Colchis boxwood was saved. In the same year, the Georgian Ministry of Agriculture launched the “Plant Protection and Phytosanitary Reliability” program.
Author: Roman Mamchits
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Pest feeding
Both adult insects and caterpillars feed on boxwood leaves . If they are deficient, the pest moves on to the foliage of other plants or eats the bark of a boxwood tree. In Sochi, in addition to boxwood, damage was also found to such crops as Colchis larch, cherry laurel, maple, ash and Japanese medlar.
Moth caterpillars are very voracious - in 4 hours one individual eats a medium-sized boxwood leaf. 20 individuals process a 3-liter container tightly filled with boxwood leaves in 2 hours.
In the south of Russia, the fire butterfly destroyed relict boxwood forests
In the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea, relict boxwood forests died - they were almost completely destroyed by moth caterpillars. Environmentalists argue that an environmental disaster could have been avoided, but officials failed to act.
Colchian boxwood is a relict plant that survived the Ice Age, writes Kommersant. In the wild, the species is preserved in the Caucasus, Abkhazia, Georgia and Turkey.
As Igor Chestin, director of WWF Russia, said, in preparation for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, more than 23 hectares of Colchian boxwood were cut down. Trees interfered with the construction of the road to Krasnaya Polyana. In 2012, during the Green Marathon campaign, seedlings of another species, the spherical evergreen boxwood, were planted to improve the Olympic village. They were brought from an Italian nursery.
In the autumn of the same year, specialists from the Sochi National Park noticed boxwood moth caterpillars on the seedlings, which had never been seen in these places before. An act of detection of the pest was drawn up with a requirement to burn the seedlings. But later it turned out that the expensive planting material was only treated against pests and planted in nature.
In 2013, in different cities of southern Russia - in the parks and squares of Sochi, Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk, Krasnodar, Grozny - boxwood began to dry out. A year later, the trees of the Khosta yew-boxwood grove died out. Director of the regional branch of WWF Russia "Russian Caucasus" Valery Shmunk said that at that time the butterfly could have been stopped - for this the territory had to be treated with pesticides. But this was impossible to do due to the fact that boxwood mainly grows in a specially protected area or near water. The law in these places prohibits spraying chemicals.
Boris Tuniev, deputy head of the Sochi National Park for scientific research, said that the leaders of the specially protected area asked the Ministry of Natural Resources to make the necessary amendments to the law or introduce a state of emergency in the region in order to exterminate the caterpillars in circumvention of the law. But none of this was done.
Ecologists and scientists emphasize that the moth came to Russia due to the fact that Rosselkhoznadzor poorly controlled the import of plants. Moreover, the boxwood moth has not yet been included in the quarantine list.
When butterflies destroyed a 500-year-old boxwood tree in Adygea and attacked Abkhazia and Georgia, Russian foresters decided to fight the pest with biological weapons. In 2021, in the Tsitsinsky forestry of Adygea, they released the Chinese eulophid, a fly that lays eggs in the pupae of other insects, which then die. But the number of moths was reduced only by half.
Now there are four boxwood plots left in Russia - three in Adygea and one in the Krasnodar Territory. The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Krasnodar Territory plans to create a nursery in one of the high mountain areas where the moth will not survive. Then the boxwood will be planted in its usual place of growth. But trees grow extremely slowly - two to three meters in 70 years. Considering that the trees in the boxwoods destroyed by caterpillars reached more than ten meters, their restoration will take hundreds of years.
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What harm does an insect cause to plants?
The boxwood moth causes enormous damage to boxwood trees. The life activity of the pest is closely related to this plant, since its leaves are the main source of food for the insect. As a result of moths settling in boxwood groves, the plants begin to rapidly dry out, deteriorate and even die.
By gnawing a significant amount of tree foliage, the insect destroys the integrity of the crown. Because of this, the plant’s nutrient metabolism processes are disrupted and a serious failure in photosynthesis occurs.
This factor also adversely affects other crops growing in the same area as boxwood.
The dynamics of the insect population, as well as the harm it causes, depends on many factors: food
base, intraspecific and interspecific interactions, environmental conditions. Thus, the boxwood moth, brought to the territory of the Krasnodar Territory, found itself in a very favorable environment with extensive nutritional resources, good weather conditions and the absence of individuals eating it. This led to the fact that stable, strong forests, which had been in a calm, healthy state for more than a thousand years, were seriously damaged in the shortest possible time. Today, the infestation of the boxwood moth in the Kuban territory is a serious threat to the unique yew-boxwood grove, which can be completely destroyed.
In addition, this individual can cause the complete disappearance of evergreen boxwood throughout the North Caucasus.
The presence of boxwood moth in plant crops can be determined by the following characteristics:
- leaves and shoots are densely covered with cobwebs, which are clogged with the skins of larvae, excrement of caterpillars and black head shells;
- the plant dries out quickly;
- a large number of dark green and yellowish-green caterpillars covered with fine hairs live on branches and foliage;
- the ground is covered with insect waste: a layer of processed greenery, feces, which emit an unpleasant specific odor.
The gamas tick is an unpleasant and dangerous parasite. Contact your doctor promptly if you come into contact with him. If you want to eliminate insects, read this useful article.
The fight against animal parasites is difficult, but it must be done. Read the following link for material that will help you.
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In the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea, relict boxwood forests that survived the Ice Age almost completely died.
Scientists are talking about a large-scale environmental disaster, writes Kommersant. The forests were eaten by the moth butterfly - this pest was introduced in plants purchased in 2012 from Italy for the Sochi Olympics as compensation for more than 23 hectares of Colchis boxwood cut down during the construction of infrastructure. We purchased seedlings of another species - spherical evergreen boxwood. “By planting thousands of trees, we are together creating a green legacy of the Olympics today,” Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of the Sochi 2014 organizing committee, said in an interview then.But in September 2014, Natalya Shiryaeva, a researcher at the Sochi National Park, inspecting the purchased trees, discovered caterpillars of the boxwood moth Cydalima perspectalis, a pest butterfly from Asia, on them. In 2006, it came to Germany from China and spread throughout Europe, but it had never been seen in Russia before.
According to the drafted act, all infected seedlings were supposed to be burned, but, as it turned out later, they were simply treated with an insecticide and planted in the wild. A year later, in Sochi, Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk, Krasnodar, and Grozny, boxwood began to wither and dry out. The subtropical climate contributed to the faster reproduction of the moth; here we must add the absence of natural enemies in the Caucasus - for Russian birds they contain too many alkaloids. By the way, the number of pests in some places became so large that the caterpillars literally fell on park visitors, leaving burns on the skin.
In the summer of 2014, the trees of the Khosta yew-boxwood grove, popular with tourists, died out. At this stage, according to the deputy head of the Sochi National Park for research Boris Tuniev, the moth could be stopped by treating the trees with pesticides, but boxwood grows close to water and in specially protected natural areas, the use of chemicals there is prohibited by law. Correspondence with the Ministry of Natural Resources on the topic of amendments to legislation did not yield anything.
“In this case, environmental legislation interfered with the conservation of nature,” states Valery Shmunk, director of the regional branch of WWF Russia “Russian Caucasus”. Ecologists and scientists believe that the moth infection occurred due to the fact that Rosselkhoznadzor did not establish proper control over the import of plants.
According to Andrei Krutov, assistant director of the All-Russian Plant Quarantine Center, the Center was connected already at the stage when the insects had spread so much that it was impossible to change the situation. The law on plant quarantine was adopted only in 2014, it lay without movement for a long time, it was difficult to pass through parliament and it was late, Krutov noted.
In 2015, butterflies flew across the Caucasus Range and took over the boxwoods of Adygea. There they destroyed the 500-year-old natural monument “Colchian Boxwood Massif” and headed to Georgia and Abkhazia. The Sochi National Park reported that they had found a means to combat the moth - they decided to use biological weapons against it. In 2021, in the Tsitsinsky forestry of Adygea, as an experiment, a Chinese eulophid was released - a small fly that lays eggs in the pupae of other insects, develops there and devours the “host” from the inside. In the laboratory, the fly showed good results, but in nature the mortality rate of the moth was 50-60%.
As a result, there is now practically nothing to save from the moth in Russia. The environmental organization NABU-Caucasus said that there are only four surviving areas of boxwood left in the country: three in Adygea (4.5 hectares) and one in the Krasnodar Territory - a narrow strip of about 1 hectare.
At the moment, all that scientists can do is to ensure the preservation of the genetic material of Colchian boxwood, which can then be planted in areas where it normally grows, cleared of pests. “The site for the reserve will be selected in one of the high-mountainous regions of the region, where the moth does not survive,” explained Deputy Head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Krasnodar Territory Dmitry Medyantsev.
In this case, it will be necessary to wait several years for the moth to eat up absolutely all the boxwood and die out of hunger. “Starting planting before this is like bringing the caterpillars breakfast on a platter,” Tuniev emphasized. In addition, the strategy to combat the moth must be coordinated with the authorities of Georgia and Abkhazia so that it does not turn out that butterflies from the “Abkhaz smoldering hearth” fly onto the samples saved by scientists.
It will take about 500 years to fully restore the former groves.
www.newsru.com/russia/21aug2017/samshit.html
Pest control
In Russia, the fight against this pest is seriously difficult due to favorable conditions for the development and reproduction of the insect. The main rule of successful struggle is
timely detection and identification of the pest. The most effective method for killing moths is the chemical method. For this purpose, pyrethroids (Karate, Decis pro, Decis, Fury, Fastak) and strong drugs (karbofos and BI-58) are used. The new product Dimilin works well with young caterpillars. This drug is absolutely safe for humans and animals.
The mechanical method involves collecting pests and their eggs and then burning them. Also, to reduce the insect population, deep pruning of the plant is carried out. Using a biological method, young caterpillars that have just hatched from eggs are destroyed. For this purpose, drugs are used that contain the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. The effect is achieved when the caterpillars eat the bacteria. But insect control measures are further complicated by the fact that in the resort area the use of chemicals is strictly limited by the sanitary and epidemiological service.
Fighting boxwood moth: review from our customer.
Friends, we share with you a review from our customer on the successful fight against boxwood moth. We hope that the positive experience will help many gardeners preserve their plants.
In August 2021, a customer contacted our company asking for help choosing a drug to combat the boxwood moth. Marina Denisenko has been working on the issue since 2014, and shares the results on her forum page. There are 158 boxwood bushes in total, of which 77 are ancient (relict) planted in the early 50s of the last century, and 81 are young boxwood. At the time of our conversation, Marina had already used many drugs that did not help completely defeat the pest. There is practically no information on combating this pest, and it was necessary to select a drug based on Marina’s experience and our assumptions. Marina said that she had already tried preparations based on pyrethroids, phosphorogranic insecticides and neonicotinoids. We suggested trying the drugs Apache, Bushido, Zhukoed, since the active ingredients of these drugs, Thiamethoxam and Clothianidin, belong to the group of neonicotinoids; they were synthesized later than the original ones. Imidacloprid could help. In addition, we decided to test the biological insecticide Lepidocid, SK, BA-2000 EA/mg
Marina decided to test the BIOLOGICAL INSECTICIDE Lepidocide SK, BA-2000 EA/mg
.
Here is a customer's review of the drug Lepidocid SK, BA-2000 EA/mg produced by TPK ROSTI:
This year our boxwoods withstood all the bites of the voracious moth.
So a little report! So, on 08/21/17 the boxwood was sprayed with kinmix (beta cypermethrin 50 g/l). But on 08/25/17 I met quite healthy and smiling caterpillars:
They were placed with their boxwood in a jar, where they were imprisoned for almost three weeks. And what did I notice! I have already said that after treatment with chemicals, I encountered elongated or simply frozen caterpillars in the boxwood. So there you go! Having eaten boxwood, these creatures simply dozed off!!! I noticed this during an experiment in a bank! Sometimes it looked like the caterpillars were dead! Because they froze in different poses! In fact, they were just having a quiet time! Next, we ate boxwood for our dear soul.
When almost all of the boxwood was eaten, I wondered if they would start cannibalism after that. No. We haven't started. They pupated, but apparently after the kinmix they could not turn into butterflies. They successfully died in their cocoons. But one of the caterpillars did not die. But it has noticeably decreased in size - we can say that only one head remains! Here is a photo of this surviving caterpillar from 09.13.17:
And so on 09/15/17 they all came under spraying with Lepidocide! The heat did not go away, I had to spray it in the morning already at +33. The drug was purchased at the Letto hypermarket, their packaging is 100 ml and at a completely reasonable price. The bottle was enough for three 30 liters. I also sprayed a jar with caterpillars. That big-headed caterpillar was the first to fall back. After 9 days I remembered about the experiment... By this time, all the caterpillars had turned black and turned into mummies:
I examined the boxwood bushes - they were all clean, with no signs of food. Definitely, Lepidocide worked very well! And 30-33 ml per 10 liters of water is enough to destroy these creatures. I did not re-treat it a week later, since there were too few caterpillars, as well as butterflies. Now I’m wondering whether it’s worth spraying the bushes before winter.
Photo of boxwood bushes:
Marina Denisenko.
How the yew-boxwood grove in Khosta died (2 photos)
Author: Andrey
25 November 2021 13:00
Tags: Olympics in Sochi Yew Grove environmental disasters
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Once upon a time there lived a forest. He saw dinosaurs and survived the Ice Age. But I didn’t survive the Sochi 2014 Olympics. Colchian boxwood is a relict plant. There is paleontological evidence that it grew in the Caucasus more than thirty million years ago. This species is listed in the Red Book of Russia.
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Boxwood's troubles began five years before the Olympics in Sochi, when large-scale construction took place. The environmental situation has deteriorated greatly. Boxwood forests were weakened by infectious diseases. And when they built the railway and the Adler-Krasnaya Polyana highway, the forest was cut down en masse. Many rare plant species were damaged. Boxwood suffered more than the rest: in the Veselovsky district forestry alone, twenty-three hectares were cut down. In the fall of 2012, evergreen boxwood was brought from Italy for the Olympic Village. This is a park variety of the plant. And the larvae and caterpillars of the moth arrived on the roots of the purchased trees. The same moth that feeds only on the leaves and bark of all varieties of boxwood. And nothing else. Phytocontrol rules were violated when importing Italian plants. Specialists from the Sochi National Park were called in for an inspection. They immediately said that the brought trees needed to be burned. Otherwise it threatens disaster. They spoke, but no one heard them. Infected plants were planted throughout the Olympic Village and throughout Sochi. Until the fall of 2012, there were no moths in the Krasnodar region. In this climate they have no natural enemies. Even local birds do not feed on moth caterpillars because the insects are protected by hairs and are poisonous. Scientists call introduced species that begin to reproduce uncontrollably due to a favorable climate and the absence of enemies “invaders” (invaders). First, the moth moth ate all the urban boxwood plantings in Sochi. This was recorded by specialists from the Sochi National Park and reported to the Ministry of Nature of the Russian Federation. To save natural boxwood forests in the Krasnodar Territory from death, scientists asked officials for permission to treat the affected trees with pesticides. The Ministry of Natural Resources refused. They referred to the federal law “On Specially Protected Natural Areas”, where the use of chemicals is prohibited. Ognevka continued its spread throughout the Krasnodar region. In September 2013, employees of the Sochi National Park found the first “characteristic leaf chews” on the territory of the reserve. And in September 2014, the famous Yew-boxwood grove in Khosta died. There, the moth ate all the boxwood on an area of 182 hectares. It was one of the most popular tourist spots in Sochi. Entrance to the grove still costs 300 rubles. Although the guide and cashier apologetically explain to the few tourists that there are no more boxwoods in it. Experts say that it will take about 600 years to restore the number of boxwood trees, if this is even possible now.
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Tags: Olympics in Sochi Yew Grove environmental disasters
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The moth is a wax moth, a rare creature that spoils hives, honeycombs, honey, beebread, pollen, and wax. This is the only infection on our planet that can eat everything. Absolutely. Even wax. However, the main object of her desire is beebread. However, she does not neglect pollen or honey, however, if there are beebread and moths in the honeycomb, then the beebread will quickly become moth. Very fast. Just yesterday. So the moth is not a wax moth, but a beebread moth 
This is what a moth that has not yet hatched looks like.
It is difficult to say where this evil creature with a beautiful fox name comes from in ideal hives, but sometimes it happens. Actually, this summer it happened to us. If your honey is attacked by a moth, the main thing is to notice it in time. It eats quickly, multiplies quickly and quickly spreads throughout all the surrounding hives. Often gnawing its way right through. Have I already said that she eats everything in her path?
Her cocoons are almost like those of a silkworm.
The next step is to isolate and dismantle the diseased hives. Take out the honeycombs, sort through and pick them apart, collect large specimens of the moth in a glass jar with high walls - it is nimble and spreads out as quickly as it eats. If it seems to you that there are no moths, dig deeper. The cunning beast loves to hide inside honeycombs.
You have to pick it all the way to the middle.
Infected honeycombs are placed in a wax furnace, preferably separate and definitely separate from healthy ones.
While the honeycombs full of honey sadly flow into the bucket, we walk through the wooden hives with a light. If you are unlucky enough to have polystyrene foam ones, which are sometimes made for scamming, catching swarms or out of laziness, then it’s easier to throw them away - the moth only rushes right through, gnawing through them.
If the moth has started up in non-working hives hidden in an omshanik, do not be lazy to carefully inspect it and go through it with fire where possible. You will certainly find it where you did not expect.
This is what moth-eaten honeycombs look like.
Now you can start making the tincture. It would seem, what kind of drone did these larvae surrender to us for? However, they are very useful. In general, beekeeping is an activity in which it is impossible to find anything useless. Ognevka is no exception. Real moth tincture is quite rare and expensive, but beekeepers are not at all upset about it
In the old days, tincture of fireweed was used to treat tuberculosis, and even now it is used in cardiology, pulmonology, gerontology, andrology, and gynecology - such a reaper and a player of the pipe. The fact is that after gorging on beekeeping products, spoiling the hive and adding a lot of work to us, the moth acquires a lot of useful enzymes, microelements, vitamins and other “s” that are vital for a person. For example, I know a beekeeper who resolved his post-infarction scar using this alcoholic method. By the way, the taste is quite tolerable. It doesn’t smell like worms - it has a honey-propolis taste.
This fire still needs to be sorted out.
So here it is. We take our flame, plump and alive, and weigh it. And fill it with 80% alcohol. The proportions are different and depend on your goals. I fill it with 1/2 or 1/4. If necessary, you can always dilute it a little. Store the tincture in a dark place, shaking the jar periodically, for 2 to 4 weeks. Then we filter it into a dark glass container and solder it to the enemies a little at a time. Just kidding. She's really useful.
While we were pouring the fire, the honeycombs melted safely. Now we will take them out, clean them, burn them, re-stretch them and fix the foundation.
There's still a lot of work to do.
Once the frames are cleaned and fired, you can start waxing.
Yes, the wax moth did a fair amount of work, and somewhere we still missed it, because after a while the procedure had to be repeated with other hives, so there is less honey this year than planned. But it’s enough to make soap and drink tea
Kira Divnica (c) 2020
How to fight?
To destroy the boxwood moth, early detection of the pest plays an important role. To avoid the active reproduction of butterflies, you should carefully inspect each tree in the planting from early spring. The most effective method of control is the use of chemical insecticides.
The most effective brands and optimal dosage (l, kg/ha):
| A drug | Dosage (l, kg/ha) |
| Karate | 0,4-0,5 |
| Fastak | 0,1-0,3 |
| Fury | 1,0-1,5 |
| Karbofos | 0,5-1,2 |
| Decis Profi | 0,7-1,2 |
| Dimilin | 0,5-1,0 |
Spraying with chemicals is carried out according to the dosage and dilution standards of the solution. Treatment is carried out 2-3 times per season with an interval of 14 days. The concentration of the solution and the rate of treatment directly depend on the age, diameter and height of the tree.
In addition to chemical treatment, young caterpillars should be promptly removed from trees and subsequently destroyed. Since 2014, a biological method of controlling the moth has been used for large boxwood plantings. For this purpose, Chinese eulophyte beetles are introduced into the grove, feeding on the pupae of the pest.
