Yesterday I found a grasshopper and a caterpillar enjoying my rose buds (the chickens enjoyed the bugs)

I would guess that it is sawfly larva. Rose slug is a common one, as buford has suggested, it could be the culprit. Sawfly larva are usually green or yellow and are very small but have ferocious appetites. They are often mistaken for caterpillars. Look under the leaves. I simply smash them.

Rosebud tips, here it is usually katydids, and less often, grasshoppers. However we only get katydids in the summer, when it is warmer. Don't know about your area. I see grasshoppers now.

Here sawfly larvae only go after the foliage. Of course it may differ in other climates.

I'd like to see a photo of the damage, love my roses, because it sounds very similar to what I get only on only a very few of my roses, primarily, my Evelyns. After putting up with the damage for several years, I said to my self, the h--l with it, and scratched in some granular imidocloprid around the bases of only the affected roses. One time only, and there was no damage. I've done this two years in a row, and had complete success. Sorry, folks, but I'd just had it with the extensive damage in spring. And I do have many, many bees, bumble bees, and other less delightful insects. Diane

Evelyn is so full-petaled the bees have a hard time getting to the pollen, so dosing roses like that is a little safer for the bees.

That seems to be true. I've never seen bees on any Evelyn. I do see them on Dainty Bess, Blueberry Hill, Ballerina, and even Ebb Tide, which does open quite a bit. Diane

Photos coming!

Pictures. Sharifa asma and aloha. Think I saw tiny green bugs eating inside one?

Another picture. It just sickens me!!!

Thrips. Saw one. Tiny and long. Front half is lighter in the bigger ones. Smaller ones are lighter . Seems some are microscopic and green. How is this for a sick looking bouquet.

This post was edited by ilovemyroses on Tue, Mar 19, 13 at 20:11

Sorry for so many posts. And it's Abraham Darby and aloha mainly affected.

And Evelyn.

I think you have a few thing going on. From what I can see, most of the damage looks like bullheads. This happens when the temps get cold when a bud is forming. It distorts the bud so it doesn't fully open and looks shrunken. And if you see thrips, then that is also a problem. The cold damage will pass, but thrips you'll have to deal with. I usually don't get hem until later in the season. I'm going to use the Bauer drench on the ones that get them the worse.

what is the Bauer drench? Is that the brand name? I just sprayed them with garlic spray. who knows. We haven't had much cold, and other roses (Sharifa Asma who is nearby and not yet open, just a week behind Abraham Darby) doesn't seem affected. IDK, maybe on the cold. But not within the last several weeks.

Reading about Spinosad (spelling may be off a bit) which is supposed to be useful and harmless (I have a hard time believiing that) to other bugs...then a bit about a 'tea' of diatomaceous earth sprayed on them. It is certainly just affecting the lighter heavily petaled Austins, for the most part. Aloha is also affected.

Then read something about planting garlic nearby. and dill.

It is just SO FRUSTRATING to have your spring flush ravaged by this stupid bug. I know many of you have been there.

ANY OTHER ORGANIC OR MINIMALLY INVASIVE IDEAS!!?? i have so many lady bugs and possibly those lace wing bugs (not sure on id, these look like them but are a half inch to an inch long at most).

Such a rose fan I hate when they DO live up to the reputation of being a pain in the ***!

I copied this from an old post from luxrosa.

Texas Agricultural college says that either white, yellow or blue sticky traps will work for thrips. There are different types of thrips and I would think that since rose thrips are attracted to light colored roses, I would try the white traps first, which can be done by simply buying white plastic plates and covering the surface with Vasoline. If that didn't work well I might try adding sugar to the Vasoline to encourage the thrips to come and feed and stick to the trap. At Texas Agricultural and M., sugar has been found useful in insecticidal sprays to attract aphids to feed on it.
Here is my recipe for garlic spray:
I used this a few years ago and it worked well, though its' a bit of a bother to make.
Thrip-be-gone spray
Put a gallon of hot water in a large pot or bowl.
add:
12 cloves of garlic. You don't need to peel the cloves, because it's going in the blender
1 chopped onion
7 Jalepeno peppers, split lengthwise. (Tabasco and chilli pepper sauce was not effective, when I tried substituting them for the jalapenos)
1 tsp soap (heck after reading your freinds advice I'd use Palmolive)
1 T. canola oil to make it stick to the leaves. Canola oil will disperse in oil, unlike many other oils.
Let this sit for at least 24 hours, up to 48 hours.
then strain and spray.I had spray left over, and it kept for a week in my fridge.
Marin county rose website reccomends flooding the soil in spring after rose thrips first show up, in order to drown thrip pupae. No information about how much water to use, but more than saturation. I've never heard this advice before and would like to ask an entomologist more about it.
die thrips die! , ooops I meant R.I.P..thrips, may angels sing thee to thy rest.
Lux.

Your damage is exactly like that on my Evelyn roses. I don't believe it is thrips which my Frederic Mistral and two other light pink roses have problems with. Thrips damage has an entirely different look, I think, with brown edged petals being a prominent symptom. The Evelyn problem was totally cleared up, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, with one dose of granular imidicloprid. I know many of you wouldn't use the stuff, but after years of watching the damage and organic solutions failing, I used it. I don't regret it either. I have never seen any insect on the Evelyns, so it's been hard to identify which pest it is. Diane

Forgot to mention that spinosad didn't work for me on any pests. Lots of hype--no results. Diane

Yes, the Thrips aside--as buford said, cold weather damaging the developing bud. What has the weather been like the past couple of weeks?

Hoovb, really nice. No freezes.

Nana doll. I'll give it a shot. I suspect a gang of pests! Just on the ones getting the damage. I've had it! Nematodes, truckloadS of expen$ive $oil year after year, mulch out the wazoo! Compost, alfalfa, all but a silver spoon.

Enough. Hope I have yr results!

Hi roses, I thought I typed Bayer drench. My laptop is being repaired and I'm on an iPad, which autocorrects everything.

It doesn't have to be freezing for the buds to be effected and not all roses have this problem. Some people call it proliferation. I had a really bad case of it in 2009. Here is a link to that thread with pictures:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesant/msg051830076224.html

buford, I read that link. very interesting. and yes, indeed, although I did see some thrips, this is definitely bullnose. Interesting Aloha, in another part of the garden, was affected. and not freezing, as you pointed out. Well, what can you do but live with it??

I think my 'anger' of the previous evening has subsided, so the artillery I had planned for today may wait.

I'll reup the garlic spray, and maybe research this Bayer drench. (yes, that autocorrect made me write Sharifa A. as it kept saying Asthma!!)

thanks all, and KEEP THE ORGANIC THRIP TREATMENTS COMING!!!!

btw, i just found last night pretty good reports of cornmeal as an organic treatment for blackspot, just threw all I had out there, so I will report back!!! A few are BS magnets...mind you, ALL this is happening, for the most part, to my David Austins, I am sad to say. Another vote for the antiques!!!

Called proliferation or bullheads (not a critter eating them)

Rose Bud Deformities

rose bud damage

I might mention that years ago, at another home, I grew a small hedge of the rose Royal Bonica. It was the only other rose besides Evelyn to have this same "eaten bud" problem. RB is a shrub with blooms of medium pink that are not heavily petaled like Evelyns'. I used a systemic drench one time on the roses, and it cured the problem for that year. Not liking drenches, I never used it again, and the problem promptly came back. I've never seen any evidence that weather had a thing to do with these buds. If it did, I wouldn't have had the results I had. DIane

Dang! More low temps coming in! Glad to know what the problem was friends!!! I STILL love my roses!!

My Rosette Delizy gets thrips and looks like your pics. I don't think I've seen that damage on any others, it must be the color.

I don't know about the rose tips but these small lime green, which resemble grasshoppers are chewing holes in the sides of my rose buds, which of course I have to prune the buds off. Perhaps because of all the rain which we've had this year the destructive pest insects have been prolific! EXTREMELY DISTRESSING!!! Last year saddle back caterpillars almost destroyed my Sable Palmetto Palms and they have had a very hard time recovering this year. I use Garden Safe Organic Neem Oil Extract Concentrate spray to control most insects. It is 3 Garden Products in 1, INSECTICIDE, FUNGICIDE and MITICIDE. Hope that this helps.