I can’t stand it anymore! My butterfly bush looks dreadful. My Buddleia davidii, is acting as a host to the insect pest called the Buddleia budworm, Pyramidobela angelarum. The tiny green wiggler is actually the larvae of a small gray moth that rolls itself up in the branch tips of the butterfly bush and secures itself with its own webbing. If you pull the leaves open on an infected plant, you’ll find voracious little critters munching on the tender leaves of your treasured Buddleia. To remove the larvae, you can open leaf tips by hand or pinch off branch tips. You can also gently hose tips with a stream of water or insecticidal soap.
While a healthy plant can tolerate mild infestation, providing the proper environment for your Buddleia will help to prevent future problems. A butterfly bush needs full sun. Remove faded flowers when blooming is completed. Yesterday, I went out and pruned my bush to about five feet from the ground. You can prune to within three feet of the ground but I wanted it to reach the top of a fence. Pruning encourages new growth for the following spring and healthy flowering in the summer. By cutting back old growth, I removed many of the over-wintering eggs of the Buddleia budworm. By the way, I didn’t see any eggs as I was pruning but did find the little green budworms and happily squished them between my index finger and thumb.
I’m going to have to monitor my butterfly bush as it grows. It has a beautiful magenta flower that attracts butterflies to my garden, and, when healthy and in full bloom, it is a sight to behold.
I have a love/hate relationship with my Buddleia. I love it when it’s in full bloom and the Monarchs are feasting, but right after that comes the icky larvae season. I usually wind up giving it a bit of trim after the first flush of bloom because of the larvae. I also find it benefits from a real haircut every two years.
Isn’t that the truth! Last year, I didn’t get any “big, beautiful, blooms”, probably because I was pinching off the tips that had the larvae in them. This year, I’m going to try just spraying the tips with a strong spray of water periodically and see if I can get those blooms again. I’ll keep you posted Kat.
Use one of the most effective and well known insecticides out there. In a typical spray bottle fill with water and a teaspoon of dish soap. The bugs hate the soap.