What's eating my clematis?

I have planted two clematis and they are being eaten, one has had almost a whole flower eaten (there were only two and they were big and beautiful :( )and the other has several holes in it's leaves.

I assume it's snails! When we bought the house we had a bit of a problem with them. I did several rescue missions, removing them (once 100 at the same time!) and taking them to the local woods, before I felt defeated and put down pellets. We recently had the whole garden dug up and landscaped. It was just empty borders, hard lanscaping and grass so most of them should have gone. After a couple of days watering the turf I noticed an army of them making their way across the lawn and looking at their route they had come over the wall from next door (How did they know I had tons of new plants to plant out!) Again I removed the ones I saw and put pellets down.

I have just planted the borders with lots of pellets around the new plants, but lo and behold they are at it again! Unless of course it could be something else. The rest of my plants are unaffected - just the clematis.

Any ideas on whether this is snails or not and what I can do to get rid of the blighters!

Cheers EGW

 

Sounds like snail damage - especially in this wet weather.

Fine shells, sand, and other gritty surface may keep them away - but your best bet, is to pray for a thrush. For the last few yeas I have blessed every speckle brown chest - much better than the nightly patrols with a torch. :D

 

They've decimated my baby Montana too!! It was only left with one flower and that was severely mauled :rolleyes: The little sw*nes are slithering up the wall behind the trellis,thus avoiding the copper tape, grit, gravel,napalm and snipers :eek: :D

 

I was tying up my clemitis this morning and found three snails on the wall behind it, there is no damage so far, I will certainly be keeping an eye on that though. Little b's! :rolleyes: The wall is pretty rough but they don't seem to mind one bit.

 

Last year just one of my new clematis was being nibbled by snails, they very nearly finished it off cause every time it put out a shoot they ate it. I have heard about the crushed eggeshell thing so collect all our eggshells for this purpose and this year am spreading them around susceptible things- also clematis will like the calcium. At my in laws I have set a hosta in a new bed surrounded by bark mulch - completely untouched, so you could try that. Also copper rings. If you can use things like that then the thrushes are less likely to be harmed by the slug pellets.

 

Thanks guys - I have the same problem with them climbimg the wall and therefore getting past the bark mulch, pellets etc. My pellets say they are OK for wildlfe (though not snails clearly!) - is that not the case?

I think I will back to my nightly patrols, though there are always new ones climbing the wall from next door - anyone tried nematodes - do they work?

 

It's possible that it's earwigs - they, or some other beetle did that sort of damage to one of our clematis montana plants last year. As well as the leaves, they ate into the flower buds, which opened normally eventually, minus a few essential bits! :eek:

Here's what the RHS problem solver sys about them, mentioning clematis as a major target for them

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0800/earwigs.asp

 

That's interesting, I have noticed over the last few weeks that the flowers are also being eaten on my renunculus (urm not sure I got the right name there!). I assumed this could also be snails - I wonder if earwigs are the culprits?

 

Snails can climb pretty high, so don't rule them out. I just think earwigs are more likely culprits for the clematis damage (but don't squish them, they're generally good guys!!) but ranunculus is more likely to be slug/ snail damage, I should think.

 

i found four snails climbing the wall behind the trellis this morning , they`d had a good nibble at my clematis on the way , but they paid the price they are in the wheelie bin :D

 

Ohh, thats where my snails/slugs go, in the wheely bin. I can't bear to kill them but as long as they go to pastures new, I'm happy.

 

It's definately snails. I found several hiding on the wall and trellis last night. They are all sitting under a plant pot with a rock on top whilst I decide their fate this weekend!!!

 

Hi ellie. use a liquid slug / snail killer rather than pellets. With this you can actually water it on the plants with no harmful affect to the plant.David.

 

Thanks David, I will try to buy one. I am fairly certain that the pellets I have don't work. I went on a ruthless raid this weekend and found about 60 of them! I am amazed, to say it is only a few weeks since we had the whole garden excavated! Back to the nightly patrols!

 

One of my clematis has been demolished by snails :( At one point, I thought I had caterpillers but could never find them and then I found a treo of snails going up the fence for dinner....