Leaves being eaten by an invisible pest
candrews3007
Posts: 1
Please can anyone help me identify what is eating the leaves of so many shrubs and plants: clematis, chaenomeles, roses, robinia, cercidiphyllum and it is rampant on climbing euonymus.
All have large sections, often circular in shape, eaten out of them. There is not always evidence of caterpillars or grubs at work, though occasionally we find leaves wrapped up around a small green caterpillar and a small web.
Occasionally also there are small brown, squarish patches on the reverse of the affected leaf but not always.
Also there may be very small black or grey flat insects which may or may not be scale. But do these eat such large areas of leaf so quickly?
I have found some vine weevils but think this may be a coincidence.
But none of these are present in all cases and much of the damage is done with no evident culprit in sight.
Help please. What is causing such extensive damage so quickly?
Posts
Are you in the UK? Is this happening at the moment?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We do have leaf cutter bees in this country which take circular leaf cuttings to wrap around their eggs. It could be these.
That was my thought MuddyFork ... but this early in the year?
I love having leafcutter bees in my garden. Some years ago when I had my studio roof repaired we found a leafcutter bee had used spaces in the roof beams for her nursery , with the spaces lined with circular pieces of rose leaf.
Last edited: 04 April 2017 16:49:52
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I've already got some damage to leaves here but I'm in Hampshire and everything seems to be early. I had them in my Roman blinds which are by a door that is almost always open in the summer.
Do your leaves look like this?, because mine do, I have leaves like this on all of my Honeysuckles, I also have loads of Light-brown Apple Moth larvae ( the small green caterpillar you describe ) but I'm not sure if the two are connected?
Like Dove, I think it is too early for Leaf Cutter Bees, I had some last year on my Black-eyed Suzi and they cut from the edge of the leaves / petals just like below.
Sheps...
Bumped, just in case anyone else can shed some light on what is causing your problems, candrews.
Maybe you can post a picture of a leaf to see if it resembles mine?
LIKE THESE?
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.