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What could be eating my Choisya Ternata?

still-learnerstill-learner Posts: 7
in Problem solving
I'd be grateful for advice on what could be eating the Choisya Ternata that was a healthy and promising shrub when I planted it, in a sunny position, in our small garden in the spring of 2022, and now looks severely under siege from a pest (and with the damage like nothing I've seen on any of the four Choisyas I've had in three different gardens over the past fifty years, or any Choisya I've ever seen in any other garden). Neither using slug pots round it, and putting a 15cm high band with a 6cm wide copper tape round the base, to keep off slugs, nor using anti-bug liquid sprayed on the top and on the underside of the leaves, have made any difference.

Posts

  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @still-learner Leaf cutter bee?
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • still-learnerstill-learner Posts: 7
    Thanks for your very swift response. If leaf cutter bees were the culprit, wouldn't I have seen them flying around the pant or in the garden in the time since I first noticed the damage in the autumn of 2022?

  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    edited September 2023
    @still-learner I have put this as a possible suggestion it could be that there is more than one thing happening here. I was looking at the shape of the leaf damage.
    Not sure I could distinguish it from another bee but it does create curved cuts at the edge of a leaf.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • still-learnerstill-learner Posts: 7
    Thanks again. I've looked up on the RHS site the picture of leaf cutting bee damage, and it doesn't look like the damage - including holes within a leaf, and in several areas leaves completely destroyed - on our Choisya.  
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @still-learner Vine weevil will cause small knotches along the edges. Capsid bug prefers the new leaves the holes get bigger as the leaf does. Then there is the slugs and snails of course that like most things.
    As I mentioned could be more than one problem.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
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