budworm 
noun
A moth caterpillar that is destructive to buds. See also spruce budworm.However, the continuing logic of comprehensive chemical spray was soon accepted, as the budworm was found to rebound quickly and move readily across space....
- Interestingly, the budworms and earworms have been found to produce the same compounds found in the saliva of beet armyworms.
- According to the proponents of the silvicultural hypothesis, several processes combined to make forests increasingly vulnerable to budworm outbreaks.