In the last three decades, significant changes have occurred in the species composition of the dominant pests of woody plants in St. Petersburg and its environs. During this time, three new, invasive pests from the moth family Gracillariidae that mine the leaves of woody plants appeared on the plantings of the city: the lime leaf miner Phyllonorycter issikii , the horse-chestnut leaf miner Cameraria ohridella and the leaf blotch miner moth Acrocercops brongniardella . These species for the first time were recorded in St. Petersburg in 2000, 2013, and 2018 respectively. All three species give outbreaks in the secondary range. In addition, the outbreak of another species from the same family, the poplar mining moth Phyllonorycter populifoliella , began. Species leading a secretive life are also dominated in other systematic pest groups: leave miners the leaf beetles Zeugophora subspinosa and Zeugophora flavicollis on the poplar, sawflies Ardis pallipes , Arge ochropus and Blennocampa phyllocolpa on the rugosa rose, the apple mussel scale Lepidosaphes ulmi and the aphid Eriosoma lanigerum on the hawthorn. Moreover, earlier these insects as pests of the stands of St. Petersburg were not noted. On the other hand, a number of phyllophagous insect species, especially open-living insects, for which a sharp repeated increase in population density waspreviously noted, have not been found in urban plantations over the past 40 years, for example, three species of family Erebidae - the nun moth Lymantria the satin moth Leucoma salicis and the rusty tussock moth Orgyia antiqua. Another significant group of pests is sucking insects, which are widely represented in urban plantations and periodically give significant increases in numbers. The change in the species composition of the dominant pest groups in the urban environment can be associated with three main external factors affecting populations: a change in the species composition of the stands, climate change, and an increase in the level of pollution andother anthropogenic pressures on the stands. The latter factor, very likely, determines the dominance of secretive and sucking pests.