I just found this picture on the web. The worm in this picture looks just like the worms I have. Hopefully the link works.

http://www.zazzle.com/pink_green_card-137161200770845413

Rose Slugs.
You can spray them with chemicals, or water with a little dish detergent.
However, I get the most satisfaction out of popping them with my fingers.
You can actually hear them pop!
They don't last long, but in a very short time, they can make your leaves look like lace.
Kill-em!

Jeri

Jeri,

The pictures of rose slugs I saw in the internet didn't look like these. Are the ones on my roses just babies? Why aren't they eating the leaves? I don't see any leaves with holes in them.

Hey Aggierose,
Could they be those dreaded spring worms that come down from trees, particularly oak trees? If so, they are cankerworms, commonly called inch worms. I saw my first ones this weekend, hanging by their long threads from up above. They got on my roses a bit last year, can't remember a lot of damage, tho. Check out this link to see if this is what you have.

Cathy in Arlington

Here is a link that might be useful: cankerworms

Cathy may have it -- something we don't get in CA.

Jeri

They look exactly like the cankerworm picture. I have never noticed these worms before, but my husband told me today as we were walking the dog that the worms that hang from trees are back. Cathy, from the link you sent it looks like they only damage trees, which may explain why I 'm not seeing any leaf damage. Do you know if they will eat rose leaves too?

Yeah.... I think they will eat about any leaf they land on.... I seem to remember that they did some damage to some partially opened roses. But my yard is surrounded by trees, and last year my area had a huge cankerworm problem, moreso than previous years. But even last year, cankerworms did not defoliate any of my shrubs, roses, perennials. I tolerate the occasional munched-on leaf.

Cathy

There is also the larva of the Hoverfly, (syrphids) which is a beneficial that eats aphids. I killed a few of those because I thought they were roseslugs before I learned what they were. They are fatter and always on the top of the leaf and they vacuum up aphids like, well, like a vacuum. I'm not sure what area of the country they are found in. You can see the flies hovering around the roses. They look like a fly that is colored like a bee.

To me the picture in your link looks like that of the hoverfly larva.

Gosh hoovb, now I'm rally confused! We just noticed swarms of hover flies in our yard yesterday. I didn't know what they were until I posted the description here. They don't seem to be around anymore today, wierd. There were so many yesterday flying everywhere. I looked up a picture of a hover fly larva and you're right. My worms look like that too! The picture of the cankerworm and the hover fly larva look very similar to me. Does anyone know if the hover fly larva crawl like a caterpillar or do they move more like a slug? My worms definitely crawl like a caterpillar - you know with the back coming up off the ground. Now I don't know if I should kill these things or leave them alone. Maybe I'll move some of them to my aphid covered stems and see if they start eating!

Maybe I'll move some of them to my aphid covered stems and see if they start eating!

That's what I would do.

I've never seen them move. Usually they are on an unopened bud eating aphids, not moving otherwise.

The main difference between those and roseslugs is that the roseslugs start off really tiny and get bigger as they eat their way through the foliage. The hoverfly larva start off pretty big right away and get just a little bit bigger as they eat the aphids. Also the stripe on the back. I think the roseslugs that are striped have a double stripe and the h.l.'s have the single, or the other way around. Also the head of the roseslug is a bit or a lot bristle-y if you look very very close. But the leaf damage is usually apparent right away with the rose slugs--they go straight to eating. If there is no leaf damage that usually means the hoverfly larva.

I get several varieties too. Last summer I spent several months collecting and killing rose slugs and budworms. Have no idea which are which, I have ones dark green, sage green color and a tomato green. At least the pics I sent Baldo were ID'd as budworms. Had a big problem in CA last year, LA area down south and in the north. Mine definetly ate the buds, I could handle leaf damage, but I started going out twice a day collecting the caterpillars and feeding them to the toads. I put out houses for them and throw the worm down on the ground by their pot and knock on the top to get their attention. My SIL was very amused by this. I found it more satisfying that squishing them:)
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If I hunt I might be able to come up with a better pic. I don't have any mature trees, mine are all only a couple years old. The neighbors don't have any trees at all yet. So, I think I can definitely rule out the cankerworm. If some of them are hover fly larvae, I can't tell the difference and I'm not going to give them a chance to eat the buds and disappear.