Hungry caterpillar warning as creepy crawlies chomp their manner throughout UK
Hungry caterpillars are chomping their way across Britain, the Royal Horticultural Society has warned.
The creepy crawlies polished off an entire tennis club hedge at Stoke Park in Guildford, Surrey.
Now ravenous box tree caterpillars are on the rampage across London and the South East.
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Insect boffin Dr Stephanie Bird, of the Royal Horticultural Society, said: “Box tree caterpillars pass through winter as small larvae sheltered between bound-together box leaves.
“At this time of year the over-wintering generation will have long since awakened and resumed feeding.
“As they feed and grow their damage becomes increasingly noticeable.”
Native to east Asia the caterpillars – the larvae of a moth that feeds on the box plant – arrived in the UK 10 years ago and their population is soaring.
They can strip entire plants of their leaves.
Dr Bird said the caterpillars emerged in Surrey in 2014 but are now “across the whole of the country”.
She added: “You may spot their presence via the small green pellets of insect excrement you will find under box, the partially-to-entirely eaten leaves and the presence of webbing.”
She urged gardeners who have not so far been hit to use pheromone traps to spot when flying moths arrive so they can look for and remove the caterpillars”.
The Royal Horticultural Society also recommends checking box plants during the spring so gardeners can spot the caterpillars before any serious damage is caused.
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