What is eating these shrubs?

[Kamma89]

Hi all

Novice gardner here, something seems to he attacking these shrubs & I'm clueless as to next steps. Any help much appreciated. They went in the ground about a year ago after being in pots for a year, have maybe doubled in size but started to deteriorate a few months ago.

Leaf cutter bees usually . No need to treat as the plants will not suffer.

I don’t know but buy an insecticide Spray from amazon and get it sorted. Likely some form of aphid or other little bug.

Thanks for quick replies. I've got some natural insecticide which got rid of some tiny black bugs on ivy. Could give that a try.

But...if @FLOrenze is right & it's not actually harming the plant I'd rather not as you can't make out the damage unless up close.

We really do need all our bees. If you ever do need to spray anything always do it late evening when the bumblies are tucked up in bed.

please DON'T use insecticide even the so-called 'natural' ones. This is the work of the leaf cutter bee and will not harm the plant- just makes it look a bit frilly. The female is using bits of leaf to line the nest where she is laying eggs.

We need all the bees we can get

Thanks for the advice all. I won't spray we have in close vicinity a blue Ceanothus? (Could be wrong on that) but it's almost tree size, in bright blue flower & swarming with bees.