Wood mulches attract root weevils and they can damage the foliage of an evergreen clematis - not too many other insects will bother with the thick and leathery leaves. But it is highly unusual for root weevil damage to be anything more than cosmetic unless you have a very severe infestation. I've never known the larvae to bother clematis roots although they can do some serious work on heucheras! Eradicating weevils is difficult and I'd never recommend a toxic pesticide for this purpose, but replacing the wood chips with another mulch product will help. Otherwise, use beneficial nematodes. Again, it sounds more like some cultural issue that is causing the failure rater than simple insect damage. How recently were the clematis planted and how was your winter weather? IIRC, you are located in the PNW? If so, I'd expect that weather played a significant role.

Mix a dose of dish soap and tap water. Apply to plants with a spray bottle. I have not used this on flowers however but it works great with veggis if you use the right soap (palmolive is good, I use ajax currently but it may have caused damage to my raddishes) it will not hurt your plants. You can litterally watch the little beasts die. I spend lots of time outside at night smoking cigarettes and spraying them directly. This even seems to kill quicker than bug spray when you apply it directly to the bug.

Earwigs seem to appear after all the rains we had ~ tho not so bad in the early part of Spring due to an early start of the sunny/hot days of early May & that gave my clems time to flash their first blooms beautifully! Oh but as soon as the series & intermittent rains & storms returned, earwigs started showing up & started their nighttime activities ~ devouring the beautiful blooms as well & loved to hide during the day in the centerfolds of very young leaves of many of my Hydrangeas leaving them holey as well! They hide in dark humid places & quickly drop themselves when discovered!

After searching to hopefully find a non lethal way to get rid of the Four Lined Plant Bug, to no avail to speak of, I did run across this newspaper advice column in the link below. The second Question and answer contributes to your problem with the four lined plant bug. A little late for this year, but plenty of time to get ready to attack them this fall. As they say prevention is the best medicine. Here is a copy of that question and answer. I hope they don't mind and if the moderators feel it best to delete it, please leave the link. "QI have a huge area that is planted with Russian sage, mums as well as a few other perennials. The problem is that almost all the plants have these tiny brown circles all over the top part of the leaves. I don't know if it's a disease or an insect. Chuck, Fair Oaks Based on what you described, you may have a fungus or you could possibly have what we call four-lined plant bugs. They are easily identified by the four black stripes running down their back. They have a range of hosts, including fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and cucurbits. The associated damage consists of spots that look similar to fungal disease spot and can be misidentified as such. With piercing/sucking mouthparts, the four-lined plant bug removes the plant's chlorophyll. A toxin present in their saliva is also secreted during feeding that digests the components responsible for holding the plant cells together. This feeding produces white, dark or translucent spots 1/16 to 1/8 inch in diameter on the plant's leaves, which can merge together (if there is substantial damage) forming large blotches. Entire leaves can turn brown, curl up and eventually fall off. If feeding occurs on new growth, wilting may result. The damage by four-lined plant bugs may be misidentified as fungal disease spots because of their similar appearance. When the damaged portion of the leaf falls out, a shot hole will remain that looks similar to fungal disease. Four-lined plant bugs can be troublesome to get rid of. During the fall, the banana-shaped eggs are laid in the old stems of the plant. The eggs will overwinter and hatch in late April-May just after the plant's foliage emerge. The agility of this bug contributes to the problem because when disturbed, the bug will drop to the ground or will hide and is therefore rarely seen. In order to keep damage to a minimum, begin to check plants in midspring around May-June for damage. Start to use control at the first sign of damage, since just a few bugs can cause severe damage. Insecticidal soaps and summer horticultural oils prove useful as well as acephate or malathion. It is also possible to remove a lot of the old stem in the fall, which will likely remove egg masses. Look for the eggs; they are banana-shaped and highly visible and can be easily disposed of when there are no leaves on the plant. The best way to beat a lot of damage is to be observant early on in the year because once you start to see signs of damage, you have to act quickly. Four-lined plant bugs have only one life cycle per season. The damage will usually stop sometime around the end of June, so spraying later than June for this insect is not usually necessary or effective." Spock Here is a link that might be useful: Ask Dan, The Herald in Orange County, CA