A he althy viburnum delights with vitality and beautiful flowers. The voracious viburnum leaf beetle can ruin the splendor. Read our tips against snowball leaf beetles here.
Snowball leaf beetles damage the bush
If you have a snowball (Viburnum opulus) in your garden, you have a beautiful plant with wonderful white flowers and a wonderful scent exudes. But like most other plants, the viburnum has enemies in the insect kingdom that can become dangerous to it. First and foremost is the snowball leaf beetle (Pyrrh alta viburni). It is not the actual beetle that causes the damage, but the larvae.
Larvae hatch in May
In September and October, the snowball leaf beetle lays its eggs in holes that it has previously eaten in the branches. The larvae hatch in May. At the end of June all the larvae in the soil pupate. But that doesn't mean that the snowball tree now has peace from the pests. The beetles hatch in August. They then chew on the snowball comfortably until the end of October. However, the larvae are the ones that do more damage.
What do the larvae look like?
Snowball leaf beetle larvae are easy to spot: they are yellow with black warts on their bodies. They feed on the leaves of the plant. You can find them on the underside of the leaf. There they eat away the lower layers of tissue. This creates holes in the leaves.
Fight snowball leaf beetles
If the larvae are a bit older, they sometimes eat the whole leaf bare. This so-called skeleton feeding damages the snowball particularly badly. Therefore, check the leaves of your viburnum regularly and remove the larvae by plucking individual leaves or shaking off the animals. If you put a light-colored cloth under the plant, you can easily pick up the animals that have been shaken off.