Holy crap! Ticks that size?! I cut the leaves off and put them into the trash bag in the garage. Clearly they were just following the leader. They were in a very uniform line, one next to the other, each chewing their share of the outer edge of the leaf. Only a couple of them were found on the downside of the leaf. They are not touching my fruit. Fruit is beautiful and dark purple. They really didnt look like a beetle to me. It is possible that the backside of the body is larvae-looking, almost like a grub-looking beast. I cant take them out of the trash, they are goners now.

I get several varieties too. Last summer I spent several months collecting and killing rose slugs and budworms. Have no idea which are which, I have ones dark green, sage green color and a tomato green. At least the pics I sent Baldo were ID'd as budworms. Had a big problem in CA last year, LA area down south and in the north. Mine definetly ate the buds, I could handle leaf damage, but I started going out twice a day collecting the caterpillars and feeding them to the toads. I put out houses for them and throw the worm down on the ground by their pot and knock on the top to get their attention. My SIL was very amused by this. I found it more satisfying that squishing them:) If I hunt I might be able to come up with a better pic. I don't have any mature trees, mine are all only a couple years old. The neighbors don't have any trees at all yet. So, I think I can definitely rule out the cankerworm. If some of them are hover fly larvae, I can't tell the difference and I'm not going to give them a chance to eat the buds and disappear.

Also, I've been thinking that since these guys are living in and eating rotting leaves, they should be functional for vermicomposting, even if they're not superstars. I've been adding those I find to a new worm bin I'm trying to start with a small number of ENC, and using the leaves I found these guys in for bedding (along with shredded paper and CCB). I've been seeing conflicting reports about whether l. rubellus (if that's what these worms are) is a suitable bin worm: everything from "they kick ass," to "they'll live low in the bin and be slow, but they do the job," to "they won't work at all." Most of it sounds like best guess, too. Does anyone have an opinion backed up by experience or hard facts?

It is generally impossible to identify earthworms to species level from photos of live specimens. In order to properly identify an earthworm it needs to be preserved and examined under a microscope. Worms cannot usually be identified unless they are adult specimens with a clitellum. From your photograph, the worm shown does not appear to be clitellate and is probably a juvenile. Its colouring suggests it is an endogeic earthworm, which means it lives in the soil where it eats soil and forms shallow horizontal burrows, Composting worms are epigeic (they live on the soil surface and eat organic matter) and tend to be red in colour rather then the pinky grey of the specimen in your picture. The worm is certainly not Eisenia fetida or Eisenia andrei, which are the worms sometimes called "red wigglers" in the USA. I could attempt to identify the worm for you if you are able to send me an adult specimen with a clitellum. What country are you in?