large shrub - what’s killing it?!

Hi. We have a large bush that creates a privacy screen for our garden. It seems to be dying, the leaves are turning brown and crispy and it looks like something has been eating it! Can anyone tell me what is killing it & if there is any way of saving it?! Thanks

 

Hello @Catalyst, and welcome to the forum!

Regarding your privacy screen - The leaves look like a laurel.

I have no idea what is affecting it - I find laurel to be annoyingly indestructible.

In the first photo, it looks like individual holes. We got that on one laurel, that was near the road, when they put chippings as an interim road-surface. The stones scarred the leaves, and a few months later, they had little dead patches. Did you have a hail storm about 3 months ago?
But the second photo, it looks more serious. Hopefully the experts will be along soon!

 

Viburum larvae

Look on the underside of new leaves and you should see a small larvae
And you may have a smell for cat poo when damp



You can squish them but it looks like you have it bad, so i would give it a good spray with something like Provado spray, the Viburum plant will recover slowly, next year you can spray early when you see some new holes in the new young leaves late april and may you should see signs of the little devils

 

Thank you both for your replies.

I hadn’t connected it, but there has been a definite foul smell at certain times around the plant. I had put it down to animals fouling nearby! Walking home from work today, I noticed 4 other properties with the same plant and they all looked badly damaged. Never noticed it in previous years! Unfortunately the plant is about 10ftx12ft so it’s going to take quite a lot of provado! Thank you for identifying the plant and the problem.

 

We got a 60 foot + hedge and it will take time to get them all, yes the foul smell is from the plant