Gardeners are being warned of a new invasive pest which is threatening Britain’s box trees, the shrub favoured by topiary artists.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has recorded a rapid increase in cases of the Asian box tree caterpillar, Diaphania perspectalis, which can rapidly lay bare hedges it infects.
It is thought the adult moth arrived by air, either on the wind or by flying, from northern Europe, in 2008. By 2011, there were reports of larvae in private gardens in Buckinghamshire.
The inch-long caterpillar is a greenish yellow with black stripes along its length and it becomes a moth