Problem with small holes in leaves of all my fruit trees

[D-Red]

hi,
I recently purchased several plum trees and apricot trees and cherry trees and blackcurrant bushes from a garden centre and planted them less than 3 weeks ago. At the time of purchase (just a few weeks ago) they looked perfectly healthy.
Fast forward 3 weeks and we have leaves absolutely riddled with little holes, many of which are incredible perfectly circular and small in shape but others are bigger and less circular. I am attaching a photo of one such leaf.
I looked painstakingly at every leaf on every tree (22 trees in total) and couldn't find a single caterpillar or any trace of slug slime/residue or any pests apart from occasional very small groups of aphids here and there.
The worst affected is the apricot, then the plums. There is only very minor damage to the blackcurrant and cherry. The smaller apricot is riddled with these holes, every leaf on it has some.
We have had an extremely dry spell of weather since they were planted and I was slow off the mark with the watering, which I have since rectified by stepping it up with the watering in past week, admittedly slightly on the late side.
Other than that I can't think of anything that I'm leaving out.

Anyone got any idea what is causing this? It's driving me nuts and I'd hate to see my entire orchard ruined so fast after planting all these trees and bushes.

Thanks in advance

 

[Tetters]

Welcome to the forum @D-Red. It's no good worrying about this problem, it is seemingly the year of the slug! We all have the same problem. The little sods wait until you're asleep and then march in and munch! Although those leaves will look a bit tatty, it's not serious, and the trees will be OK.
It is a bad idea to use slug pellets, or any poison around your food crops however, as you will kill off all the other beneficial insects. When slug damage gets bad around here, we can be heard - out there with a torch, in the dark, with a salt pot, yelling obscenities at them as we chuck 'em into the salt It's so often those little tiny slugs to look out for, not so much the big ones. It's all just part of the fun! Keep smiling.
As a PS... the little slugs don't always seem to leave trails, and they have a canny way of hiding during daylight.

 

[D-Red]

Thanks Tetters
Oh so you'd be confident that it's slug damage so? I'd be delighted with that outcome tbh, I had become concerned that it might be a disease or something. If it's slugs then I'll make my peace with that. I had been googling it and came across things I had never heard of before such as shot hole disease etc and that had freaked me out.
It's actually reassuring to hear it's just slugs.
Thanks for the helpful reply and the warm welcome

 

[Tetters]

You are so welcome. It's always good to have another sufferer to compare notes with. A sense of humour fixes most things - in my book, something the Irish race can be most adept at