Probably aphids. Probably the best thing to do is take your hose and spray them off with a jet of water. They will come back, but unless you have a lot of them, they will not do any damage.

Lady bugs love to eat aphids.

If you leave the lady bugs something delicious to eat, such as unpoisoned aphids, you'll be amazed at how quickly lady bugs - and the even hungrier lady bug larvae - can deal completely with an aphid attack.

Agreed - don't use pesticide, it's not necessary. Another fun way to get rid of aphids if you have a lot of them is to sprinkle flour on them. Since they are sticky it clogs their pores and they suffocate. Wait about half an hour, then rinse the flour off your roses. Crazy, but it works!

I wasn't planning to use pesticides. I'll try flour and see how it works. Meanwhile the ladybug is stull munching away.

Is there any chance that the flour would harm the ladybugs at all?

I don't know. There's only one lady bug, and she has a favorite stem so I left it alone. I guess I could call the extension agent again and really confound him.

If you do call please let us know what they say about that. I've been trying to convince my Mother to stop spraying the aphids on her roses. If the flour worked only on the aphids that would be a great thing! She claims she has no ladybugs and she probably doesn't since she can't stay away from the seven dust.

I never knew what the ladybug larvae looked like until earlier this year. Here's a picture I took of one about a month ago:
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