Content
- Does the boxwood calculator have natural enemies?
- No natural predators
- The local wildlife comes to the taste
- Easy prey for sparrows
- Do not use chemicals
- Tips
Birds like to eat the boxwood conifer
Does the boxwood calculator have natural enemies?
Since 2010, the boxwood conifer, a small butterfly native to East Asia, has been spreading, especially in the south of Germany and in the neighboring countries, and has already destroyed thousands of valuable stocks. But now nature seems to be fighting back - the first birds as well as wasps were observed to eat the protein-rich caterpillars and even feed them to their offspring.
No natural predators
The voracious pest was originally introduced to Europe via imports from Asia and spread rapidly. As is common with many neozoa (ie invasive species), the native animal world could not begin with the butterflies. Hobby gardeners also reported that they had observed birds while trying the caterpillars, but they eventually strangled the pest again. Therefore, it was initially assumed that the caterpillars took up and stored the bitter toxins of the boxwood. Thus, they also tasted bitter to the birds and were inedible for them. In fact, lab tests have found that the caterpillars store the same toxins in their bodies as they did in the boxwood. Some of them were merely stored, others even digested and thus used as food source.
The local wildlife comes to the taste
Meanwhile, the plague seems to be waning, which may have been due to the fact that many gardeners have desperately removed the book from their gardens and the malaria-specialized pests are no longer able to find any food. On the other hand, the local bird life seems to be getting on the taste slowly: For many species of songbirds include the larvae of boxwood meander now to the diet. Apparently, a period of habituation first took place after even the toxins of sparrows, great titmice and other feathered pest controllers did not seem to matter anymore.
Easy prey for sparrows
Especially sparrows have discovered the green caterpillars as easy to catch, exceedingly numerous (on many a bush hundreds to thousands of butterfly caterpillars) and protein-rich food for their chicks. Many a gardener could already observe, how the small birds in the box tree bushes on Lauerstellung went and plantings looked for an infestation with Zünslerraupen. Not only sparrows, but also other songbirds and garden birds such as great tits, chaffinches and garden red tails have discovered the boxwood bush as a worthwhile hunting ground. So make sure that the birds in your garden feel good, for example by hanging nesting boxes near the boxwood plantations - with a little luck, sparrows, titmice and others like to take up the offer and return the favor by wiping out the caterpillar caterpillars.
Do not use chemicals
However, a bird-friendly garden also requires that you do not use any chemical sprays to control the boxwood conifer. These toxins have the unpleasant property of poisoning not only the pest but also those beneficial in the garden. The birds eating the caterpillars would then die from secondary poisoning. However, as the sparrow population has been steadily declining for years and both house and field sparrows have now landed on the alert species list, this new food source for the cute animals may be a chance to recover. So what can you do for a non-toxic but effective fight against the boxwood bug?
Important measures against the Buchsbaumzünsler:
The dusting of the plants with algae lime has also been successful in the past.
Tips
In addition to songbirds, wasps now appear to have found taste in the fat boxwood caterpillars. See the animals no longer as annoying visitors at the summer coffee table on the terrace, but also as a welcome pest controller in the garden. These may then like to have a bit of the sweet cake as a reward.