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Boxwood Blight? #880233

Asked August 05, 2024, 11:13 AM EDT

Can you take a look at these pictures which shows the sudden death of the boxwoods on our property of just under two acres. This one is in the front of the house and has been there for at least five years and suddenly was completely dead. The other two about 15 feet away were planted last fall and appear to have some death starting to occur on the leaves. Outback there are two more that are completely dead and two that do not appear to have any dead foliage yet. Questions: 1. Is this Boxwood blight? (see pics) 2. Is there any chance of saving those starting to have foliage issues (see picture)? 3. There are two Boxwood that do not appear to have any issues yet. Is it a matter of time before they get this? Or is there a chance they will not get it? 4. Can we plant new ones or is this now an issue for our property? How and what should we do long term to rid us of this problem? Thank you!

Oakland County Michigan

Expert Response

Hi, 

I do not see any of the leaf spotting or black stem lesions that would indicate that this is due to boxwood blight. 

https://www.canr.msu.edu/home_gardening/uploads/files/2019_msue_fact%20sheet_boxwood_blight_final.pdf

Rather, it looks as if your plants are being severely damaged by box tree moth, a new invasive pest species that showed up in southeast Michigan last year. Unfortunately, this pest is equally as troublesome as boxwood blight.

https://www.canr.msu.edu/ipm/uploads/files/Box%20Tree%20Moth%20Identification.pdf

Unfortunately, once this pest has found your plants, they can complete 2-3 lifecycles per year and would need repeated treatment throughout the growing season. You may want to consider replacing your boxwoods with other landscape plants if you do not want to have to regularly treat for this pest.

"Treatment is recommend in late July and early September using an application of bifenthrin (several ready-to-use products available at the garden center) or any pyrethroid insecticide for homeowner use can be used to control all life stages. Pyrethroid insecticides are those where the active ingredient ends in thrin, for example, cyfluthrin, permethrin, resmethrin, cypermethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin and sumithrin.

Alternatively, homeowners can spray a Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) product once every two weeks. However, Bacillus thuringiensis is not an effective control for larger caterpillars, eggs or adults. Bt is a bacterium that kills insects when ingested. There are subspecies of Bt that affect specific types of insects; kurstaki is the subspecies that specifically target caterpillar larvae. Look for product labels that say Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki (Btk)."

You can read more about this emerging issue here:

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/what-the-box-tree-moth-quarantine-means-for-michigan-homeowners

Here are some options for boxwood alternatives. MSU Extension is hoping to put out our own article on this topic soon: 

https://cals.cornell.edu/new-york-state-integrated-pest-management/outreach-education/fact-sheets/box-tree-moth/alternatives-boxwood

Thank you for your question! Replied August 07, 2024, 12:09 PM EDT

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