caterpillar pest
By Giraffe
United Kingdom 
we have a large, thorned shrub with small, dark red leaves & red berries. it's quite hardy & has withstood harsh winters & severe pruning, but to our horror has an infestation of green & white striped caterpillars that have all but stripped it! any ideas what to do?
31 Aug, 2008
Oh dear. More caterpillars! I had an infestation on my cleome plants and sprayed them with an all-purpose bug spray. It didn't kill them all, probably due to heavy rain! I suppose I could have sprayed them again. Instead, I have been picking the remainder off by hand. Can't think of any other way to deal with them except to leave them to change into Butterflies! That's the more eco-friendly thing to do, if you can bear it, then let the shrub recover next year.
31 Aug, 2008