Have you met this beauty yet?

Have you come across one of these beauties yet? In the right light, their white wings shine with a pale blue-ish silver and they suddenly seem to be popping up everywhere.

There also is a dark variant, with purplish brown wings, with just a small white marking, as shown in the picture below.

They’re box tree moths or just box moth. Sometimes also called box tree webber.

💚They are a bit beautiful.
👉But they are also an invasive species.

The first one probably came to the UK on an imported box tree, in 2007. Since then, their numbers have been spreading over the south, and into London. They suddenly popped up all over town here this year. By 2018 it was spotted in Scotland an Wales too and in this same year the Butterfly Conservation updated its advice note on this species. We’ll give you the most important bits:

💚This species has become established and is spreading, and has the potential to have an impact on native populations of box and disfigure ornamental box hedgerows and topiary.
💚Where control is being considered, the use of pesticides should be avoided.
💚Where bushes are small, we encourage the removal of the larvae by hand.
💚Where large, older topiary bushes are involved, the mixed nematode biological control which is sold as Fruit and Vegetable Protection should be tried in the first instance and may have some impact, being careful to follow the instructions.

👉Bear in mind that pesticides available will not be specific to Box Moth and will kill other non-target species of invertebrate, including butterflies and moths.