Caterpillar control: episode 2

At the end of the last episode, I was wondering whether to leave the cut back box bushes to regenerate. But within a day or so I had decided that I should not leave them, being reasonably confident that the infection would return - from eggs, debris or whatever scattered about the place.

In little more than an hour with the mattock and spade all three stumps had been grubbed out.

The stumps

Final resting place

Final resting place by the fence, where they will serve to reinforce the aging split chestnut and also as a nature preserve for beetles, of the non-pest variety. The small box plant visible at the bottom of the snap seems perfectly healthy but is growing very slowly, having been there for more than a year now. Perhaps the lack of water and light is slowing things down - and resulting in what leaves there are being rather tough not tasting too good to the caterpillars.

As if they had never been

The next day it was as if they had never been. If you looked you could find where they had been, but that was about it. Note the yew stump left: to think that I had been pleased when I took the yew down a few years back, on the grounds that it gave back some space to the path adjacent and gave the box space to prosper. Which it did for a bit.

The new yew bushes

Off to Chessington Garden Centre with the plan being to buy some honeysuckle box, of which we already have a fair bit, making up our back hedge, where it seems to manage OK in the shade. With reference 2 offering a snap of one from the Common.

But the young man in the bush part of the Centre told us that box had been discontinued because of all the pests that have arrived over the past few years. Honeysuckle box had not been struck off the list, but he did not have any in stock, even in the rather expensive specimen tree section. Not did he have anything else of the same sort in stock. So we settled for a couple of yew bushes at near £10 a pop. Which I thought rather dear for a plant which is very easy to grow: but then, he had them in stock and I had not bothered to bring on any of the various suitable seedlings dotted around our garden myself.

Planted out in no time at all, as snapped above. Including most of a well rotted bag of stable manure, stirred into the top soil and delivered to us from time to time by a chap from somewhere on the western outskirts of London. I forget why he comes round here. Notice the handle of the trusty mattock right.

Wired up

Next worry was about whether the foxes would dig up the freshly dug, damp earth in a quest for earthworms, a food they are rather partial to. Luckily I was able to rustle up enough short poles and enough wire to wire them up, as snapped above. So far the foxes have left them alone.

A bit unsightly, but once the ground has settled down, perhaps in the spring, I can take the wire and posts out again.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/caterpillar-control-episode-1.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/01/honeysuckle-box.html.