Move over “Independence Day,” step aside Martian microfossils. The real-life alien invasion has commenced: the viburnum leaf beetle – a pest that will chew and decimate viburnum trees and shrubs – has been detected in several New York counties, a Cornell University expert warns.

“It has the potential to be a major pest in the next several years,” said E. Richard Hoebeke, senior extension associate in the entomology department. The viburnum leaf beetle can permanently defoliate viburnum shrubs. It has a particular fondness for the foliage of species in the Dentatum  complex, which includes arrowwood and European cranberry bush.

While it has been found in parts of eastern Canada and New England, this is the first time it has been detected in New York. The beetle rapidly can make deciduous shrubs look similar to fir trees. “The damage is distinctive and complete,” Hoebeke said.

His first New York sighting of the viburnum leaf beetle was on July 5 of this year at Fairhaven Beach State Park in northern Cayuga County, along the shore of Lake Ontario. Since then, he also has spotted it in Monroe, Orleans, Niagara and Jefferson counties.

Viburnum leaf beetles originated in Europe, and experts believe the pest came into North America by hitching a ride with nursery plants sometime around the turn of the century. Known as Pyrrhalta virburni, the insect was discovered in 1947. The next sighting was at Font Hill, Ontario, in 1955. The insect went undetected for 31 years, and then it was found again in Ottawa, Ontario and Hull, Quebec. Scientists have kept track of its movements since.

The beetle is extremely difficult to see, resembling a small dark-brown blotch. But, its effects are unmistakable. The insect leaves little more of the shrubs than leaf veins and branches.

For the targeted ornamental plants, the larvae of the beetle is equally as bothersome as the adults. Beetle larvae hatch from eggs sometime in early May and cause extensive feeding damage to viburnum leaves throughout the larval period (eight to 10 weeks). By mid-summer (early to mid-July), the adults begin to appear and continue feeding on what remains of the leaves, then mate and lay eggs in the shrub’s twigs.

Hoebeke and colleague A. G. Wheeler Jr., of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture have been tracking a variety of exotic insects in the Northeast for many years. Hoebeke suspected that he would find the viburnum leaf beetle along the Lake Ontario shore of New York, but he thought it would be much earlier than this year. In addition to Ontario and Quebec, the beetle has been found in Nova Scotia, as well as in Maine.

Hoebeke says that the path of the pest, particularly into New York, is a matter of speculation. But Hoebeke suspects the insect could have arrived in the United States from adjacent Canadian provinces and that it was shipped with nursery stock to other parts of Canada. Hoebeke said he doesn’t know how far the beetle has spread, but where there is a host plant, the beetle could become established.

Currently, insecticides offer the only solution to an infestation. New York homeowners should contact their county Cornell Cooperative Extension office if they suspect the presence of the beetle on their ornamental viburnum tree or bush and to find out which pesticide is appropriate.