Boxwood Leafminer Fact Sheet

Boxwood leafminer is the most destructive insect pest of boxwood.

Boxwood leafminer fact sheet. Boxwood leafminer presence is indicated by blistering or irregularly shaped swellings on the leaves. Infested leaves are spotted yellow and may drop prematurely. Boxwood leafminer monarthropalpus flavus. This feeding results in blotch shaped mines in the boxwood leaves.

The good news about the boxwood leafminer is there are effective control options. Conspicuous egg punctures in leaves. The infested leaves appear blistered from late summer through the following spring. Adult flies swarm around boxwoods about the time that the weigelas bloom.

Common boxwood buxus sempervirens symptoms. The adult leafminer is a yellow to orange red fly that looks like a mosquito. These flies are less than inch long and can often be seen swarming around boxwoods in the spring. When the boxwood s new growth appears in spring the females mate then insert their eggs into the underside of the leaves.

This is the most serious insect pest that attacks boxwood. New leaves do not show signs of mining until late summer when the larvae are larger. The adult fly dies soon after. We have seen severe leafminer populations kill boxwood.

The leafminer is the larva immature form of a small orangish mosquito like fly. Over the period of several years a lightly infested plant can become discolored brown and even defoliated. The larvae of this fly feed on the tissue between the outer surfaces of the leaves. The boxwood leafminer continues to be the primary pest we deal with in boxwood.