I have a Blue Muffin Vibernum, which is suffering badly from a pest infestation. The leaves (mainly the undersides) have little worms that are eating it alive. The worms are about 5mm long, light brown or tan, and have a black head. At least I assume it is the head end. They seem to have an insatiable appetite. Can someone please tell me what it is, and how to get rid of it? I am physically removing and squashing as many as I can, but if there's something I can nuke them with, I'm horrified enough to do it!
Not familiar with your viburnum , but it seems to be a V. dentatum which apparently is highly susceptible to viburnum leaf beetle. There have been some threads concerning the "viburnum leaf beetle" referring to worms. Maybe use the "SEARCH" box in the title bar to bring up some information. This site is mentioned www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/suscept.html .
Do the worms look leach like in that they are very shiny and wet looking. I am just wondering if it might be what we call bear slug here. It attacks the Hawthorn, pears and cherry plums and sort of sucks the green out of the leaves. Have a look at this. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/INSECT/05560.html I use vacume cleaner dust or talc on them beside the other methods mentioned above. Liz
Thank you, chimera and Liz for your replies. It's for sure not the pear slugs, but I'm afraid it may be the leaf beetle.
