That's a bit odd at this time of year, caterpillars, most will have pupated by now. Any chance of a photo of one?

Agree with Bamboo any caterpillar worth its salt with have pupated by now... Suspect it is likely to e our friends slug and snail TBH!

we have lots of cabbage whites eating the Hesperis this morning so not too late for a second flush of caterpillars.

They are making up for lost time. They have just about eaten whole cabbages on my little veg plot, just when I thought it was safe. And the totally ignored the nasturtiums which they normally love...
Don't know which moths like clems though. Can you pick them off by hand? I don't suppose the plants all that big yet.

Hello All

I conjectured that it was caterpillars simply because I found one on one of the leaves. The majority of the leaves are all holes; when I inspected them, the one sole occupant was the only obvious contender...

I placed him somewhere far far away from the clematis; so no Bamboo, no chance of a pic of that one....

The leaves don't look as if they have some mite eating away at them; it's very annoying because any new growth at all on the clematis is being scoffed before it gets a chance to harden up.

Have any of you used the BT stuff before?

HollyDuff

I haven't, no, but frankly, if there are lots of holes and you only saw one caterpillar, I doubt that's the cause anyway. Have you tried slug pellets? The point is, though, most clematis are not evergreen; you've not said which clematis it is, so unless you chose one of the few evergreen varieties, its shortly going to lose all its leaves anyway.

Hi Bamboo

I take your point re-the leaves falling shortly anyway but it would be nice for it to grow as much as possible before that happens; at this rate it won't be growing any longer as every new shoot is being chomped.
It's one of the Montana species; so not evergreen.

No, I haven't tried slug pellets on this issue as I really didn't think slugs were the culprits this time (though there are many in our garden); I cannot discern any of their trademark slime up the fence where the clematis is valiantly attempting to grow.....

So it's beginning to look like a mystery.....

If you are trying to grow your clematis up a fence with no netting or wire supports you are going to have a problem as they are twining climbers. Also unless you have a extremely robust fence a C. montana is likely to take it down if it does get going... Aside from being situated in front of a fence what are the growing conditions you have the Clematis in?

Any chance of a photo showing the leaves with holes? Sometimes, the type of holes being made indicates the cause...

However if its a montana it will soon romp away next year as they pan to get huge, so no need to worry about new growth now - which could be susceptible to frost damage anyway.

Our montana's need strict pruning t stop them covering the potting shed completely... thug of the Clematis world in my view love them though I do!

Hi All

As you can see the photo my husband helped me to upload has gone on to be attached to my username!

Not a very good one either but hopefully sufficient for you Bamboo to maybe identify the critter that is eating the clematis as we speak.
(Any advice as how to delete this photo from being attached to my username would be appreciated! otherwise there will be no chance of ever seeing my shed - not that it has been decorated yet - I'm afraid other issues and the deteriorating weather keep getting in the way....)

I do take your point Steragram and Moongrower that it's maybe not that important what it is at this juncture and next year it will indeed romp away as Montana's do; but I would still have liked to know what it is for future reference.

You've uploaded the photo to your profile and chosen it as your avatar -its possible to upload a photo to a question when you ask it. If you want to change your avatar photo, just go back into my profile, select the right box and replace with another picture of your liking

From the little I can see, those holes look suspiciously like notches or semi circles, and these may be leaf cutter bees or vine weevil rather than caterpillars.

Hi Holly...I suspect thers another glitch in the website. I was alerted in my news that you had uploaded a photo. But this photo isn't on your photos page, so Im guessing you didn't choose it as your Avatar. I don't know how you can move it. Please feel free to contact admin and let them know. Good luck getting any help. We don't seem to be getting any help with various issues on GOY at the moment. The tecchies must be too busy with more important things. :( As for the Clematis...I hope you manage to get it sorted, but tbh, at this time of year most plants start to show signs of the constant attentions of critters. I wouldn't worry. As a gardener you will spend a lot of your llife battling with nature or learn to live and let live. Personally I veer from one to the othher and by September I usually give up! ;)

I've just discovered I can't upload photos into my photos section - there's no way of getting into it to delete, edit or post new photos, so looks like the site's beginning to fail here and there...

Well I don't think the admin guys are doing as much as they used to, but I could be wrong!

If we made this a subscription site for long term membrrs rather than one-offs, or volunteered donations, perhaps we could afford somebody to fix problems part time if the present boys have lost interest?

They own the site and are selling the advertising space so I'm not sure there is anything we can do... They would have to be the ones to hire someone else as we've no idea what is actually running this site.

Hello All

It's strange isn't it? My husband (who I am not blaming - no really - just this once though) has managed to upload the ugliest photo possible as my avatar, on a gardening forum!

Hello Bamboo -We too tried to delete it but couldn't find out how to.....
I'll have a go at asking admin and see if I get any help.

If the critter in question was a vine weevil; would you do anything at this juncture? If it's a leaf cutter Bee then I certainly wouldn't do anything to harm it - I love Bees and I'll just let him be....

Without stronger evidence for vine weevil, I'd just leave it alone this year and see what happens next year, to be honest.

In general leaf cutter bees take out a fairly regular semicircle, but vine weevils tend to remove a more irregular shaped chunk, it that's any help.