upturned pots of straw on sticks . they crawl in and hide overnight. that could also be woodlouse and snail/slugs. I have seen slugs rasping on my clematis.

Vine weevils don't munch on Clematis

That's a surprise, Moongrower, because my RHS book says they can. Whether they do or not they won't any more since I drenched the plant in Provado.

Seaburn, once the earwigs collect in the pots do I have to dispose of them? Not happy about having to do that because I'm squeamish when it comes to the horrid things. Those and spiders are my two bugbears.

Well dispose of them in a neighbouring field, garden, compost bin, household/outdoor bin if you don't want to squish them.

The weevils may eat the roots of a pot grown clematis but they don't eat the flowers.

Okay, glad that's cleared up. In that case it's probably the horrible earwigs. We do have many slugs which come from the wilderness next door but somehow I don't think I can blame them this time.

Sorry to highjack your question Arbuthnot, but do slugs really proliferate in a garden if there is a next door 'wilderness'? I only ask this because my garden is controlled but could be described as a wilderness by some gardeners. I do almost nothing to stop slugs except for the odd pot with copper tape around the top. i would hate to think that I am attracting slugs to my neighbours' gardens; i thought slugs were everywhere.

This is just my opinion but, I seriously doubt it Merlinb. There are slugs and snails everywhere and there does not seem to be a correlation between wilderness and slugs!

When I say wilderness I mean a totally neglected patch of ground: waist high grass and weeds, poo from 5 dogs, old boxes and other litter. There is no way that's controlled! Her house, apparently is the same but given how the 'garden' is there are bound to be thousands of slugs. Good for the birds I suppose but they (the slugs) often seem to congregate outside out back door which faces the bordering fence.

I don't see why an overgrown wilderness would have any more slugs and snails than a beautifully laid out one - in fact I'd have thought the variety of plants in a 'nice' garden would have been more tempting.

Yes, I agree, a 'nice' garden is very tempting for slugs but I think they live next door and come out for dinner!

I've just been out to study my near ravished Miss Bateman clematis (Dr Ruppel, who is with her, has long since been eaten). I found dozens of shiny, tiny black beetles (ladybird shaped but very very tiny) on the flower heads, particularly in the centres of the blooms. Are these vine weevils? If so they are very small, no bigger than a speck of soil. I thought vine weevils were bigger and not shiny so I'm only guessing.

I've looked up pictures of weevils but they are all magnified so don't help much.

I bought a Clematis Filigree a few days ago and that, too, is being eaten. I've sprayed with a bug killer but if it's vine weevils that won't work.

Dratted things. We never had a problem with them in my last garden.

No vine weevils are as big as a ladybird, dark brown and not shiny so what you have is something different. Any chance of a photo?

I sprayed with a bug killer and think I've killed them all off now, for the time being at least but they were so tiny that in a photo they would only look like specks of soot. However, after a lot of research I wondered if it was a pollen beetle. Not sure they actually eat the petals though so perhaps I've got these beetles om the middle but it's earwigs who are eating the flowers.

I'm really annoyed because both clems were flowering very well with larger blooms than I've had so far.