There are a lot of tasks that go into managing a public gardening, including monitoring for pests. Here, City Horticulturist Brian Smith finds azalea sawfly larvae on one of the park’s Exbury deciduous azaleas. These hungry critters have defoliated entire groups of deciduous azaleas in past years. Here’s what OSU says about the critter: “It is hard to notice the little green azalea sawflies on their host azalea plants due to their perfectly matched green color. It is hard to miss the severe damage from these caterpillar-like larvae as they can completely defoliate azaleas leaving only remnants of leaf veins as the only indicator that the twig once had leaves. The species in Oregon has been confirmed as Nematus lipovskyi.”
