What's Eating Your Pansy?

Viola x wittrockiana

Reviewed by Kiersten Rankel M.S.

Quick Answer

For pansies, the most likely culprit is slugs (silvery slime trails and ragged holes overnight in cool damp weather, the perfect slug climate). Aphids cluster on tender new growth and bloom stalks in spring. Cutworms chew through young transplants at the soil line. Spider mites only show up when stressed plants hit warm dry spells.

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What does the damage look like?

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Slime trails and ragged holes

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Curled, sticky new growth

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Stems cut at the soil line

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Pale specks and fine webbing

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Pests, ranked by impact

Large red-brown slug (Arion rufus) crawling on a rhubarb leaf

Slugs

Damage

High

Removal

Moderate

What it looks like

Soft brown or gray bodies, 1 to 4 inches long. Hide under mulch, leaf litter, and pot rims by day. Active at night and on overcast damp mornings. Pansies bloom in the cool wet shoulder seasons that slugs love most, so the two find each other fast.

What the damage looks like

Ragged holes chewed through the 5-petal pansy face flowers and across leaf edges, often appearing overnight. Silvery dried slime trails on petals, leaves, and the soil surface confirm slugs over caterpillars. A heavy infestation can shred a whole bedding patch in 2 or 3 nights.

How to get rid of them

Option 1

Iron phosphate bait scattered around the bed

Scatter iron phosphate pellets (Sluggo or Garden Safe Slug & Snail Bait, ~$15) thinly around and through the pansy bed at planting and again after heavy rain. Pet and wildlife safe, unlike older metaldehyde baits. Slugs eat the pellets and stop feeding within a day. Reapply every 2 weeks through the cool damp season.

Option 2

Crushed eggshell or coffee ground barrier

Ring each plant or the whole bed edge with a 1-inch band of crushed eggshells or used coffee grounds. The sharp edges and caffeine deter slugs from crossing. Refresh after every soaking rain. A free fix that pairs well with bait for stubborn beds.

Option 3

Water at the base in the morning, never at night

Aim the watering can or hose at the soil line, not over the foliage and flowers.

Water early so leaves and petals dry before evening.

Skip overhead evening watering entirely. Wet foliage plus cool nights is the exact climate slugs breed in.

Option 4

Hand-pick after dark with a flashlight

Walk the bed an hour after sunset with a flashlight and a jar of soapy water.

Check under mulch, pot rims, and the rosette base of each pansy where slugs hide.

Drop every slug into the jar. Repeat every 2 to 3 nights for a week to break the population.

Common myth

Beer traps clear a slug problem.

Beer traps catch a few slugs but also draw in slugs from neighboring yards, which often makes the problem worse. They also need refilling every couple of days. Iron phosphate bait covers the same area, kills more reliably, and doesn't recruit extras.

Aphids

Damage

Medium

Removal

Easy

What it looks like

Tiny pear-shaped insects 1 to 3 mm long, in shades of green, black, or pink. Cluster densely on tender new leaves at the rosette center and along the soft bloom stalks just below opening flowers. Spring growth flushes are the peak window.

What the damage looks like

New leaves curl, twist, and turn pale as aphids drain sap. Bloom stalks bend or fail to open cleanly. A sticky shiny film coats leaves and the petals below clusters. Heavy spring infestations cut bloom production for weeks.

How to get rid of them

Option 1

Strong water blast every 2 to 3 days for 2 weeks

Hold a hose nozzle 12 inches from the affected new growth and spray at high pressure. Most aphids dislodge and don't return. Pansy stems and petals are softer than rose or tomato, so use a fan spray rather than a jet. Repeat every 2 to 3 days for 2 weeks.

Option 2

Insecticidal soap on bloom stalks and new growth

Spray ready-to-use insecticidal soap (Safer Brand, ~$10) on the underside of new leaves and along the bloom stalks at dusk. Avoid spraying open flowers in full sun, the soap can scorch petals. Repeat every 4 days for 2 weeks.

Option 3

Plant alyssum nearby to draw beneficial insects

Sow sweet alyssum seeds in the pansy bed or in pots within 2 feet. Alyssum blooms in the same cool weather as pansies and pulls in lacewings and parasitic wasps that feed on aphids. The pairing also looks good and lasts the whole pansy season.

Side view of a black cutworm caterpillar (Agrotis ipsilon)

Cutworms

Damage

Medium

Removal

Easy

What it looks like

Plump gray, brown, or dull green caterpillars, 1 to 2 inches long. Curl into a tight C-shape when disturbed. Hide just under the soil surface or in mulch around the base of new transplants by day. Active at night through the early planting weeks.

What the damage looks like

Young pansy seedlings or fresh transplants cut clean through at the soil line and toppled overnight. The plant is often left lying intact next to the stub. Damage hits the first week or two after planting and stops once stems harden.

How to get rid of them

Option 1

Cardboard collar around each transplant at planting

Cut a 3-inch tall ring from a toilet paper roll or a strip of cardboard for every transplant.

Set the collar around the stem and push 1 inch into the soil so it sticks up 2 inches.

Leave in place for 2 to 3 weeks until stems toughen, then remove. Cardboard biodegrades if forgotten.

Option 2

Hand-pick at dusk and check under mulch

Walk the bed an hour after sunset with a flashlight on the first warm nights after planting. Lift mulch and check the soil within 2 inches of any toppled plant. Cutworms stay close to where they fed. Drop them into a jar of soapy water.

Option 3

Bt-laced cornmeal bait at the base of plants

Sprinkle a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki) granule product or a homemade cornmeal-and-Bt mix at the soil line around each transplant at dusk. Cutworms eat the bait, stop feeding within 24 hours, and die. Reapply after rain.

Spider mites

Damage

Medium

Removal

Moderate

What it looks like

Almost invisible without a hand lens. Yellow-green to red-orange specks on the underside of leaves, especially older lower leaves. Pansies prefer cool weather and rarely host mites in their happy season. A late-spring heat wave or a stressed container left to dry out is what brings mites in.

What the damage looks like

Tiny pale yellow dots across the upper leaf surface that spread into bronze patches. Fine webbing on the underside of leaves and across the rosette base in heavy infestations. Affected leaves drop early and the plant declines quickly because warm dry weather already stresses pansies.

How to get rid of them

Option 1

Shower the underside of leaves with cool water

Spray the underside of every leaf with a strong jet of cool water. Mites can't reattach quickly when knocked off, and the rinse humidity slows survivors. Pansies tolerate the rinse well in cool weather. Repeat every 3 days for 2 weeks.

Option 2

Insecticidal soap or neem oil at dusk

Mix 2 tablespoons cold-pressed neem oil and 1 teaspoon dish soap per gallon of water, or use ready-to-use insecticidal soap.

Spray the underside of every leaf at dusk to avoid scorching petals in sun.

Repeat every 5 days for 3 rounds. Covers the egg-to-adult cycle.

Option 3

Move stressed pansies to part shade in heat

If a heat wave hits and mites appear, move container pansies to part shade and water more often. Mites breed fastest on stressed plants in hot dry weather. Reducing the heat stress alone often ends the outbreak before sprays are needed. Pansies usually decline anyway in summer heat, so plan to swap them out by early summer in warm zones.

Stay ahead of all of them

Four habits that keep pansy pests rare in the cool damp weather pansies love.

Water at the base in the morning

Slugs love the same cool damp conditions pansies do. Watering the soil rather than the foliage, and doing it early so leaves dry by evening, removes the wet-foliage-at-night climate slugs need to thrive.

Lay iron phosphate bait at planting

Pansy beds get planted right when slug pressure peaks in fall and again in early spring. Scatter Sluggo (~$15) thinly through the bed at planting, before damage starts, rather than reacting after the first ragged holes.

Set cutworm collars on every fresh transplant

Cutworms only threaten pansies in the first 2 to 3 weeks after transplant. A toilet-paper-roll collar pushed an inch into the soil at planting prevents the one bite that fells a young plant. Remove or let it biodegrade once stems harden.

Mulch with crushed eggshells or coffee grounds

Pansy beds need mulch to hold moisture and keep roots cool. Use crushed eggshells or used coffee grounds instead of plain bark. Both deter slugs at the soil line and break down into a soil amendment over the season.

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About This Article

Kiersten Rankel M.S.

Botanical Data Lead at Greg · Plant Scientist

About the Author

Kiersten Rankel holds an M.S. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Tulane University. A certified Louisiana Master Naturalist, she has over a decade of experience in science communication, with research spanning corals, cypress trees, marsh grasses, and more. At Greg, she curates species data and verifies care recommendations against botanical research.

See Kiersten Rankel's full background on LinkedIn.

Editorial Process

Pest identification and treatment guidance verified against Viola x wittrockiana field reports from Greg's botanical database, cross-referenced with university extension sources and published horticultural research.

88+ Greg users growing this plant

USDA hardiness zones 4a–9b

Citations:
NC State Extension
Aphid photo: Scot Nelson (CC0)
Spider mite photo: Clemson University - USDA Cooperative Extension, Bugwood.org (CC BY 3.0 US)
Slug photo: Soebe (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Cutworm photo: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab (Public domain)