Over the last few weeks, notes and holes started to appear on the leaves of one of our clematis, this was followed very quickly by huge chunks taken out of the recently emerged leaves of an old English rose.
With no sign of slug or snail slime (our usual culprits), we had no option but to go in search of the offender.
About an hour later the trail of damaged leaves led back to a slate near the base of the clematis, upon turning over the slate we found three large brown caterpillars.
These caterpillars were placed in a pot with some leaves and when night fell, off the little munchers went, creating the same leaf damage pattern we
had seen previously.
These were certainly the culprits!
They would appear to be some kind of Hawk moth but we are uncertain as to which one.
If anybody has any ideas, please contact us via the comments box at the end of this article.