What has eaten silver birch?!

[Adrastea]

Hello all,

I have a 4 year old silver birch that is generally in good health and has looked stronger this year than previously. When I went out this morning to look at it to my horror all the leaves have been stripped off and is now just branches and stems. At first naively I thought that it had dropped it's leaves ready for autumn well I was in shock but then I saw some nibble marks on what is the only bit of leaf left. What would do this does anyone know?

[miss_corerupted]

Could be grey squirrels, they like to strip trees normally oak of their bark which can kill them. We have a huge problem with them doing it to old, large trees as well as young

[Adrastea]

Thanks Miss C. The branches are only very thin so am surprised they could hold the weight of a squirrel, but there again it's happened since I moved the tree next to a fence!!! So...

[nick the grief]

moth caterpillars for a guess. Mine suffers as well but as it's 20 years old and about 30' high it has a lot more leaves.

[Adrastea]

Well I had looked after the tree really well this year, I can't blame anything wanting to eat it. It hasn't happened before so I'll have to keep an eye out next year to catch them in time!! Thanks for the suggestions