Yes, last year when I still had a box hedge I saw masses of them. They would also hang out in the grass and fly up in clouds when I walked over it. A couple of times I saw a blackbird holding one. I haven't replaced the box yet, I'm thinking of eleagnus. There are massive hedges of it that I walk past and the fragrance is wonderful.
all the eleagnus make edible fruit too. the seed is also edible. x Ebingei fruits very early like march-april, and is good for the season, multiflora fruits july but is a bit tastier. multiflora is deciduous though but has nice autumn leaves.
I had no idea about the fruit. I have been reading up and apparently they have 15 times as much lycopene as tomatoes, and they are nitrogen fixers too!
I didn't even know I had box until the moths arrived. It's a short length of hedging on the side boundary of my front garden, which was either already there when I moved in or planted by the neighbour since. It was exactly on the boundary, so having had a new neighbour move in recently I talked to them and said I thought it was probably mine and I was going to remove it. It's really tough stuff to cut!
Box wood is probably about the hardest timber we can grow in this country, its a lovely timber although it never gets really big.
Thomas Bewick the wood engraver and natural history author (the Bewick Swan is named after him) used mainly box wood for his engraving especially the endgrain, because it was hard and the endgrain could take fine detail. The small size of diameter of box restricted the size of his engravings. He is particularly well known for the small detailed vignettes at the end of a chapter in his books. Some of his prints, books and blocks were held in a local museum in Newcastle when I was at university there in the late 70's
Purchased a large batch of the chemical treatment from Amazon when I finally realized what the problem was. My box hedges (though not looking like a hedges anymore, shaped more like bonsai due to infestation) get treated every year to fend off the box caterpillar. They were an established plant when I moved into the property so was inclined to keep them going. Every year I say I'm not going to bother but every year I battle on. They are such an attractive plant especially when the new light green foliage sprouts. The treatment I purchased is long past it's sell by date but still seems to do the job. Will be on the hunt for some more when it runs out. Just to add tried to treat with neem oil at first but didn't work out for me ran to chemical option after that.
