What does the damage look like?

if you cant see them during the day.. go out at night..

and make sure to check the undersides of the leaves ...

ken

Almost nothing bothers ours except for snails and/or slugs - so they would be my initial suspects. They do have some favorite plants, but appear willing to devour almost any leafy growth.

We've had unusually little trouble from them so far this spring, then last night they polished off the delphinium rosette down to its nubs; a plant listed as "all parts poisonous".... hope they at least got a stomach ache... or whatever the equivalent is for a slug/snail.

They can be sneaky and their telltale mucous trails are not always visible. You could probably determine pretty quickly whether they're the culprits by putting one or two beer traps out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Virginia Sweetspire care & problems

I checked the plant during the day and at night and I see no pest's. It has been raining, would that deter any pest's?
Here's a picture:

Oh... snails/slugs can do damage similar to that, but don't know that they would pass-up all those lower leaves getting that high in the plant. Maybe grasshoppers? They're known for leaving the veins and stems as in your photo and have been active in zone 8a for at least a few weeks now.

That is caterpillar feeding, but it is not Itea (Virginia Sweetspire). Itea has alternate leaves.

That's something with compound leaves....can anyone ID this plant?

I thought it looked too tall. It's been growing here for a few years and I thought last years drought killed it but this grew up from the roots of the Itea so I thought it was the same plant.
I never noticed how the leaves were growing on the stems. Thanks for that important bit of information. It might be a large tree and it's right at the foundation of my house and may need to be dug up. Now I need to find out what it is.

I'm thinking an ash seedling, but that's just a guess.

tj

I thought it looked too tall. It's been growing here for a few years and I thought last years drought killed it but this grew up from the roots of the Itea so I thought it was the same plant.
I never noticed how the leaves were growing on the stems. Thanks for that important bit of information. It might be a large tree and it's right at the foundation of my house and may need to be dug up. Now I need to find out what it is.

Roots attacked by long thin white pest, destroyed plants, can you help so as to avoid in the future.

@HU-113825353, this is a seven year old thread. You should really start your own thread and provide more details, including photos of the damage and/or pests, ID of the plant in question if you know it (or clear photos of the entire plant if you do not) and a geographic location.

Without photos and more information, we would only be guessing :-)