Content
- Lice on the boxwood: species, damage patterns and countermeasures
- aphids
- Fight aphids
- Scale insects
- Tips
Lice like to infest boxwoods
Lice on the boxwood: species, damage patterns and countermeasures
Vegetable juice sucking lice such as aphids or scale insects can be found on almost all plants, so of course on the boxwood. To avoid serious damage, you should take appropriate countermeasures at the very first sign. It is not in every case the chemical lobe the first choice of choice.
aphids
Green aphids prefer to infest the soft shoot tips of the boxwood, where they proliferate extremely rapidly and colonize neighboring plants within a very short time. The animals are far jumpable and thus walk from one boxwood to the next, but usually change not the plant species. Typical features of an infestation with the boxwood aphid are:
Aphids hatch between April to May and develop within a few weeks to adult animals. 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 aphid infestation include:
Fight aphids
Affected shoot tips should already be cut off during the period of larval development between April and May and disposed of with household waste. In addition, there are a number of proven home remedies that are effective against aphids. Spray cures with cooled black tea or a mixture as whole milk and water are useful in a less massive infestation.
Scale insects
If the leaves and shoots of the boxwood turn brown and dry up without apparent reason, you should examine the undersides of the leaves for a thorough examination: If elongated, small and dark colored bumps are visible here, it is the "Kommaschildlaus". Again, the animals overwinter as an egg on the plant, and then hatch in the following spring as a larva. As control measures, oily preparations based on neem or rapeseed oil have been proven.
Tips
If many white-colored flakes appear on the boxwood in the month of May, it is by no means a pest. Instead, you will witness a completely natural phenomenon in which the white, waxy protective cover of the fresh leaves is thrown off as it sprouts. Countermeasures are not required.