A noctuid moth that goes hard at the popular garden plant boxwood is becoming increasingly common in Sweden and is spreading northwards, reports SVT News Skåne.
It is the larvae that are specialized in boxwood. They gnaw up as much as they can, says Lars Pettersson, associate professor of zooecology at Lund University, to SVT.
The species is called boxwood moth and is relatively new in Sweden. He describes the spread as explosive. The researchers follow the development with the help of AI technology in a noctuid moth trap in Lund.
Observations of boxwood moths have been made as far north as Stockholm.
It will get worse next summer, there is probably nothing that will be able to stop it, says Lars Pettersson.
