Rose Blogs

Insects are the most common pests responsible for damage to roses. They can cause tremendous losses of precious plants. Here is a list of the ten most common creepy crawly enemies of roses and some ways to identify them.

Aphids
Aphids are the most frequently found pests. They make themselves comfortable in the growing tissue of roses (buds and shoots). Low or even moderate levels of aphids pose very little threat to your roses, though you will need to watch out for spreading. Large numbers of aphids produce an excess of honeydew, which encourages the growth of mold and they will also eventually blacken the rose leaves. If you have very big numbers of aphids, the flowers may become smaller in size and buds may be killed. There are also some natural enemies to these pests, including lady beetles and syrphid flies. These creatures help to control the population of aphids. You can even try to remove them from the roses with a spray of water or with insecticidal soaps. Aphids are normally only a problem during the spring and early summer and usually you won’t need to resort to insecticides to control them.

Spider Mites
If you see rose leaves growing stippled or drying up and falling off, then you may have a problem with spider mites. Spider mites are so tiny that you normally can’t identify them without a magnifying glass. Their presence is caused by the result of dry, dusty conditions. You can try to control spider mites by minimizing dust and ensuring that your plant has sufficient water.

Fuller Rose Beetles
Adult beetles constantly chew away at the flowers and leaves of your rose bush. You can normally detect their presence by the sharp, eaten up edges of your blooms and foliage. These beetles feed during the night and hide during the day underneath the leaves. Pesticides are not very effective in dealing with these insects, so the fastest solution is handpicking these beetles off.

Thrips
Thrips damage the blooms and leave brown streaks on the flowers. They are a big problem especially when rose bushes are planted close together since they can move easily from one plant to another. They are attracted to light colored or white roses and bring about a great deal of damage. It is rather difficult to control thrips with pesticides since they are no affected once they pass the development stage. The best thing to do is cut and dispose of infected blooms.

Caterpillars
There are a few types of caterpillars that eat up rose leaves. Usually the damage is not all that threatening to the rose plant. Simply cut off the rolled leaves and prune any damaged buds.

Rose Slug
These are actually the larva of a sawfly, but they look like caterpillars because of their legs. You can wash these slugs off with a high pressure spray of water or wait till one of their natural enemies deals with the problem for you.

Leafcutter Bees
Leafcutter bees make small semicircular holes in the leaves and take this cut-off material back to their nests. You’ll just have to tolerate them, because there is no effective way to fight them other than killing the leafcutter bees. It is advisable not to kill bees since they are natural pollinators.

Rose Curculio
Rose Curculios usually attack yellow and white roses. They are about a quarter of an inch long and go around punching holes in the flowers and buds. The larvae eat up developing buds and end up killing the buds before they even get a chance to open. If you detect an infestation of rose curculios, you can get rid of them by using some insecticide from your local home or garden center.

Flat headed Borers
Flat headed borers attack and cause the death of the canes. They may either kill just the canes or the entire rose plant. You must get rid of any part of the plant that is infested with these critters and keep the plants healthy by not pruning them too much in the summer months and ensuring that there is sufficient irrigation.

Scale Insects
Scale insects also are a threat to the canes. Scale insects have armored scales and are small, gray rounds or ovals bugs. They don’t really move because they do not have legs for most of their lives so if you spot them in one place they are there to stay. The best way to fight scale insect infestations is to prune away the infected canes and put some pesticide oil on the remaining canes.