Hi !

According to what I've tried out, slugs are not too much a problem except for seedling. There are many ways to control them and not get invade anyway. Of course, it's depending how big your garden is. I don't think cutting leaves will be useful except for aesthetic reasons :-)
However, the red spider is definitively a Fu----g pain in the ass: hell on earth :-/ Great time for them right now and great time for chemicals as well :-( Cutting can be helpful then. Some cut all the leaves during summer not to get into that trouble or to control it. Maybe someone (Nathalie ?) could tell you more...
I've also tried a new one for me: sciaride !!! A gross fly laying in the ground: larvae eat the roots ! I was about to loose that wonderful viola mirabilis, fortunately it didn't die however some of my parmes did !
Which one will be the next ? ;-) It's written: seven plagues, only 7 !!!!!! ;-)

Take care :-)
Thierry.

Thank you very much for your advice- is the red spider bright colored and the size of a grain of sand? I have some other violets that have very wrinkly leaves, look paler than the others, and I don't see any bugs on them...

some of the old english books on growing violets commercially suggest that runners and some leaves should be removed during the season. the runners can be use to make new plants. the grooming of the plants by removing some leaves opens the plant crown to more light. this is considered to stimulate the plant to flower better. i heavily 'prune' my plants in the early autumn. this also removes a lot of old and damaged leaves. many of these will be somewhat affected by pest and pestilence. based on the old advice and my own experience, i'd say you canÂt go wrong removing some damaged foliage.
rob...