Little, almost vile, destructive beetle (6)
I believe the answer is:
weevil
'destructive beetle' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'little almost vile' is the wordplay.
'little' becomes 'wee' (similar in meaning).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'vile' with its last letter removed is 'vil'.
'wee'+'vil'='WEEVIL'
(Other definitions for weevil that I've seen before include "Beetle, a grain pest" , "Type of beetle that feeds of stored grain etc" , "little creature" , "Small beetle that feeds on plants" , "Small beetle, pest of crops" .)