Yes, sounds like aphids. I let the ladybugs feast and don't worry about them. You can also dust them with flour in a nylon stocking, which will suffocate them.

You'll have aphids every spring, but they don't do much damage. Chemical insecticides are overkill. Another control measure is 1 TSP dish soap / quart of water / Windex sprayer.

Yep they sound like aphids. Aphids can cause the buds and leaves to become deformed. I have used insecticidal soap with good results.

Does anybody know if they are gone for good once you scrape them off?

Nope, not in my experience ... but I have learned to live with them and when walking through the gardens will run my thumb and fore finger on the pliable part of the cane near the tip and squish them on the up stroke. It's kind of a tradition checking whether I get green yellow or orange fingers. Never really had major rose damage I recognize.

I use to fuss them and spray all sorts of garbage on the roses, but not anymore. The reason is they are eventually brought under control by the lady bugs that inhabit my garden by the hundreds ... took a few years for them to find my garden and now they love it.

I have no roses blooming at present as they are just coming out of dormancy but the lady bugs are busy all over the place - I assume laying eggs.

However there is one bad part, in about mid to late September the aphids eggs that are on the underside of the leaves hatch - those that survived the sparrows jumping up and eating them - and I have thousand of flying green winged bugs for about 5 days - PITA to breath.

I crush them with my fingers.

I find that I have a bigger problem with aphids (and I live in a different zone) whenever ants are involved. Amazing as it sounds my ants will farm aphids--the original ant farm. So if you see both ants and aphids on your rose then you will need to treat the ants.

I agree with those that don't spray aphids. There never seems to be too much damage. Eventually, nature takes care of them.

I blast 'em off with the hose if they get bad enough - like when the bud looks like a Moss rose and isn't - and Moss rose buds don't wriggle. :-)

I alternate blasting with water and smushing them. The lady bugs take care of most of them. Works pretty well! No spray needed.

Carol