Sorry I have no suggestions, except that these holes do not look at all like leaf cutter bee damage. The bees make nice circles, or parts of circles. Maybe your leaves are being chewed by some sort of caterpillar?

Jackie

Whaas,

That is not Leafcutters. Check on the underside of your damaged rose leaves for any pests.

Whaas,

This may help you out: Look under foilage & leaf pests.

http://www.sactorose.org/rosebug/irosepests.htm

Bingo!

There are very tiny green worm/caterpillar looking things eating the foilage...I caught them in the act!

On the site listed above, I think it might be a budworm. I would a post a pic but they are so little!

Any thoughts on how to get rid of them? They seem to be eating ALOT of foilage.

Should I just spray and inscecticide...I do have a few aphids as well.

They are probably rose sawfly larva, and the best way to get rid of them is to hand squish them. Gross but effective. wasps and yellow jackets love to hunt for them, so if you see those hovering around your plants that is what they are looking for!

yep, rose slug sawfly larva!

Hmmm...they are effecting all my roses! I don't know if I can handle hunting around in all those thorny stems looking under the foilage for something so tiny. Any suggestions for a spray? And can I spray when the rose is in bloom?

Try Safers (insecticidal soap) or whatever brand (Insecticicidal soap) your local stores carry. Spray tops of leaves, bottom of leaves, canes, and on the ground underneath the rose bushes.
I was reading that in Wisconsin the rose slugs are usually done feeding Mid June or so, then they will be gone.
Hopefully the article knows what it was talking about. lol
Or you can just wait it out.

OR blast your rose leaves top/ bottom and canes with water from your hose in early morning to try and knock them off. Just don't go crazy and harm your rose leaves. lol

whaas,

If you get a chance try to take a clear closeup pic of one of your rose slugs. Just interested to see what yours looks like compared to ours. lol

Mine are green with black heads. I think I'm in the second generation already. It is non stop this year, that is why I bought Spinosad. Kind of costly though... I tried soap initially on Rosarium U and Crown Princess. That is where I'm getting second generation by now :(.

Sounds like the rose slugs we have right now gardenmanya. Ours are 1st generation right now. But, yes these ones have more than one generations.

That's why I was interested in knowing what Whaas rose slugs looked like in his area.

What do you guys mean by generation?

The ones I've found are bright lime green with a black or very dark brown head.

They are very tiny. Maybe a 1/4" long and less than a 1/16" thick. I did see a couple fatties (compared to the tiny ones) but they still were only about 3/8" long.

I just tore the heads of those little buggers! They deserved as they were eating the foilage even as I picked them off.

I sprayed a general purpse insecticide from Bayer on one of the roses. It had severe damage. I let the other ones go without any spray. I'll just inspect a little and see if i can find any.

Too bad on the yellow jackets and wasps there were a ton of them but then I sealed off a few sections in the siding and I just saw one today for first time in a couple weeks.

Usually they just eat for a couple of weeks, and go away for summer. This year I have them probably for 6 weeks already.Wait, yours will grow bigger!:) Can be up to 1/2 of inch. These make really big holes!

Whaas,

Generation: some sawfly larvae have 1 generation of offspring. They eat for awhile then leave for the season.
The brisly rose slug has more than 1 generation. They have offspring more than once during a season.
Not sure what kind you have in your area.

That general purpose insecticide will kill all your good insects along with the bad ones.
You only have a handful of roses right???
If your afraid of getting pricked by hand picking. Just try using your hose and wash some of them off.

Where do they go after you wash them away? Right now the roses have a spring flush so I don't want to hose them down. Those little buggers don't come off easy...little munchers are hanging onto the foilage, lol.

I'll find one and post a pic of the little culprit.

I understand the good insect deal. A few weeks ago I almost sprayed my roses because of aphids but I saw a red ladybug! I was cheering him/her on, lol.

I have 14 shrub roses, the flower carpet roses had the least damage. Northern Accents and Knockout had the worst damage. Easy Elegance and Meidiland in the middle.

My knockout rose also had little brownish white spots on the top sides of the leafs, any ideas on that one?

Whaas,

Ok, you have more roses than I thought. lol
And I understand your point of your spring flush and those buggers hanging on for dear life. lol
That's the thing, some people say they can climb back on the roses, some say they can't. I think the idea of trying to wash some off with the hose is to hopefully cut back on damage and to give the good guys more of a chance to keep things under control. I suppose birds and other predators munch on the ones washed off, some die, etc.
Those brownish white spots could be marks left from the rose slugs or another pest.

Whaas,

Do you notice yourself montoring your roses more than any other plant/shrub in your garden?

Yesterday as I was pulling weeds, I noticed insect holes in weeds. lol. Then, I looked at our dogwoods, more insect holes. lol. But, yet years can go by before we even notice. lol. And who cares.
But, let us find holes in our rose leaves, we feel as if the world is coming to an end. lol. Why is that? lol

Whaas,

I recently used Safers Insecticide Soap on our new roses that were covered in rose slugs. I checked the underside of leaves a couple days later and all are dead. It turned them brown and they looked all dried up. Things were dead and still hanging on. lol

I'd say I do a general walk through every couple weeks for all plants...checking leaves, girdlied roots, etc.

Yesterday I noticed the leaves of my Vibrunum trilobum where wilted, after further inspection there where borer holes in the base of the trunk! The shrub had to be removed, definitely not happy with these dang insects! In hindsight I probably should have taken a torch to the trunk before throwing it in my burn pile.

The holes really don't bother me but if you scroll up to the very first pic and the leaf on the left is what 50% of the rose looks like. I waited too long to act for this rose...it will be fine though. I just don't want it overly stressed going into July and August.

I'm assuming the Safers Insecticide Soap is safer than most Bayer insecticides?

I'm assuming the Safers Insecticide Soap is safer than most Bayer insecticides?

Yes it is Whaas.