Help what is eating my shrubs?

blue rose

Can anyone knowledgeable advise what is eating my Snowball shrub and now started on my Viburnum. I'm wondering if it's the Viburnum beetle as its only the Viburnums that have been affected? What is the best thing to do about it? I sprayed the Snowball tree as much as I could with general bug killer but now the whole shrub looks eaten :-( I should of asked this question sooner... 

Thanks for any help, I'm sure you all out gardening today :-)

Pete.8

It does look like viburnum beetle damage.
Some info here - 

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=556

Too hot and humid to even go outside today, but cloud is building so hopefully I can get outside soon!

P.S. - there's usually an unpleasant smell around colonies of viburnum beetle especially after rain

Last edited: 01 June 2017 13:12:08

treehugger80

the beetles caterpillar like hiding under the leaves, so spraying it can be a problem (it runs off the top of the leaves and doesn't get to them, unless you spray upwards)

what you can do is pick off any infected leaves (it will look terrible for a couple of weeks, but the plant will recover) and either burn the leaves or put them in your general waste bin - don't compost just in case the caterpillars survive.

I did this last year to my mums guilder rose - in fact I removed all the leaves, and it came back fine, there was a small infestation this year, but it was easily controlled and i'm hoping next year we'll have them under control.

blue rose

Thanks I was wondering whether to prune all the leaves, I did some already but wanted to ask here first. It might look bare afterwards as I didn't have time to do it earlier and now it's spread to nearly all the leaves. I would be sad to lose it. Its a mature shrub and like a small tree.