- What preventative measures can I use to stop my strawberry
plants being attacked? - Why have the stems of my clematis been
stripped of their outer layers? Some of the stems are dead and
there are holes in the leaves. It sounds very much like slug
damage. Pop down to your greenhouse one night and see whether
you can spot them. Pick them off the plants and kill them, use
beer traps, or apply a sharp scratchy mulch such as gravel to
deter them. If you are not keen on creeping about by torch light
then put down some slug pellets. For an organic approach try
using Nemaslug. It sounds like your Clematis is struggling a
bit! The damage to the stems and leaves is likely to be caused
by snails or slugs at this time of year (May). The easiest way
to deal with them is to apply slug pellets around the base of
the plant and hand pick them off the leaves and stems at dusk
when they are at their most active. The other common cause of
damage to clematis is earwigs which chew ragged holes in the
leaves and flowers, although