The first pest every spring on my rose buds are aphids. What can I do to get rid of them? I don’t want to spray pesticides.

Aphids arrive in large numbers and distort the new spring growth by piercing and sucking on the tender new leaves, stems and buds. They reproduce rapidly but their numbers decline dramatically through the year as there are many aphid predators. This soft bodied pest is easily squished with our fingers and blasted with jets of water.

In early spring I see smallish gray-brown beetles chewing holes in petals and damaging the stamens of white and lighter-colored rose blooms. What are they and what can I do?

These are hoplia beetles. Hand-pick them and drop them in a bucket of soapy water or squish them underfoot. Fortunately, they only have one generation a year and pose a problem only from March to the end of May.

Help! My rose leaves are lacey! What is going on?

Bristly rose slugs are the pests responsible for lacy, skeletonized rose leaves. To minimize this pest, it is imperative to catch this pest as soon as they make their first appearance in May, and then keep monitoring for them for the remainder of the year. They are the larvae of sawflies and look like (but are not) green caterpillars. They are hard to see as they feed on the underside of the leaf. Squish them or remove infested leaves. 

I am seeing holes in buds and chewed up leaves. I also see rolled up and silken leaves.

Caterpillars make holes in buds, they damage blooms and chew and skeletonize leaves but they can be hard to find as many are night-feeders. Black droppings (frass) are a tipoff to search nearby for actively feeding caterpillars. A leaf folded over, two leaves ‘silked’ together or a leaf rolled up and tied with silk could be a clue of hiding caterpillars. Budworms and inchworms bore single holes into buds and consume the developing petals, preventing the rose from opening properly. Cut out and dispose of damaged buds which may still harbor caterpillars.

Why are my rose leaves speckled?

Leafhoppers suck the underside of rose foliage with their piercing mouth parts and cause speckled or yellowed leaves.

I am seeing fast moving black dots inside my rose blooms, and some blooms are discolored.

Thrips discolor and damage blooms as they suck sap from petals. They appear as fast moving, tiny, black dots inside the buds and blooms of light or pastel-colored roses. A bud that is bent over at a sharp angle is often a first sign of thrips’ damage. Frequent clipping and disposal of spent blooms and yellowed leaves can help reduce thrips and leafhoppers. Sticky traps are popular with some organic gardeners but be aware that these traps can also ‘stick’ beneficials. 

The lower leaves on my roses look lifeless and I am seeing a fine webbing on the underside of the leaves. What should I do?

Spider mites are prevalent pests in the summer months. They are arachnids, not insects. Their sucking feeding results in stippled leaves and a fine webbing on the underside of foliage, and sometimes a rapid defoliation of the leaves especially in hot, dry weather. When caught early, spider mites can be controlled with forceful jets of water directed to the underside of leaves, repeated three to four times a week. A mite outbreak often occurs after the use of a broad-spectrum insecticide such as Sevin.

I am seeing some grasshoppers and katydids on my roses. What damage do they do?

Grasshoppers and katydids are chewing pests that feed both day and night and do a lot of damage to leaves and blooms. It can be hard to catch these highly mobile pests but you can do it with practice.

 My roses looked disfigured and ‘burnt’. I don’t see a pest. What is going on? 

You have chilli thrips, a pest that reproduces very rapidly in the summer months. We cannot see chilli thrips with the naked eye but by the time we see their first damage, they already have an established life cycle underway in the garden. Chilli thrips larvae and adults extract sap from new growth and tender buds with piercing and sucking mouthparts. The first sign of damage is a slight marbling and puckering in the new foliage. This is followed by dirty brown streaks on the back of the new leaves, brown or bronzed-tinged buds and the chilli thrips’unmistakable signature, deformed and scorched blooms. Cut out and bag up damaged growth. Minute pirate bugs and the larvae of the lacewing and syrphid fly are predators. Some rosarians spray the new foliage on their roses preventively in the hot months. Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew with the active ingredient of Spinosad is an organic pesticide that targets chilli thrips and will not harm ladybugs, green lacewings, minute pirate bugs and predatory mites. However, spraying must be done in the evening as it is toxic to bees exposed to treatment for 3 hours following application.

I have iridescent green beetles feeding on my roses. How do I deal with them?

 These are fig beetles. They arrive with buzzing sounds and actively feast on peaches, figs, apples and roses in the summer through to the early fall. There is fortunately only a single generation of these beetles each year. Drop them in a bucket of soapy water or squish them underfoot.

 I am seeing some white soft-bodies insects on my rose stems and canes.

Scale are sap-sucking insects with piercing mouth parts that feed on rose canes and prefer the warmer months. Some varieties of scale form a hard shell, and some are soft-bodied. The females reproduce under the shell cover and the nymphs (crawlers) emerge in the spring and summer from their covers and attach themselves to the cane to feed. Eliminate scale by scrubbing with an old toothbrush or with a cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol. Highly infested canes must be cut out.