Sorry to hear that Patty! I get real nervous about Rose Midge as I had a mild case two years ago and I took the 2 roses out that were effected and bagged them then covered the soil with plastic for awhile etc....A guy from the Ag office at Penn State confirmed that it was rose midge but so far to my knowledge they have not returned...(Not in great numbers anyhow)... I've never seen the adult rose midge so recently I got a scare but it turned out to be a hoverfly...But yes Rose Midge makes me very nervous...

I hope your situation gets better Patty! I feel so bad for you!

Baldo Villegas mentioned on Facebook that yellow sticky traps (or, oil-coated yellow cups) attract midge. May be worth a try.

Thank you Jim and Diane. I'll be darned I was coming to ask for thoughts on sticky traps or cups. I'll be gathering them up tomorrow. May not help but at least it worth a try. Spray a little rose scent on there while I'm at it.(kidding)

I know oil covered cups work for thrips but Rose Midge??? Will have to research that...

Only organic ways i've heard of is covering soil with plastic to disrupt the rose midge life cycle.

Clipping off infected parts of the rose bush and bagging...

"There is some anecdotal reports that removal of any mulch and loose soil around the plants in late fall will remove the embedded larva which burrows about 1-2" below the surface. Again this material must be removed from the garden or anywhere within 150 feet to prevent return of the insect. "

But with a already established rose garden these methods would be alittle tough to pull off IMO...

I could not get this link to open maybe you can...

http://www.ctrose.org/Documents/New%20Approaches%20for%20Combatting%20Rose%20Midge.pdf

I'll try to find articles on RM...

That CTRose PDF says: Dr. Shetlar uses a new product, dinotefuran, which has the unique attributes of water solubility and the ability to diffuse into surrounding plant tissues. Commercially available in Green Light® insecticides containing Safari®(www.greenlightco.com), he applies it as a soil drench at the first hint of bud formation and reapplies after the first flush and with deadheading of subsequent bloom cycles or everythree weeks for ever-blooming roses.

Thanks Zack...

Found this statement:

The only reported effective non-chemical control for rose midge would be daily removal of affected new growth tips and destroying the debris. This prevents of larva from dropping to the ground and pupating into new insects. Do not compost the remove plant material for this will allow the life cycle to continue in and around your garden. This requires diligent daily inspection of the new growth to detect the infestation and remove the plant part before the larva (sometimes referred to as maggots) fall to the ground.

I did do the soil mulch thing years ago after my worst rose midge years ever. I placed the soil in dark garbage bags. They where sealed well and left to sit over winter until I could determine if it helped. It did not so at the end of season I dumped it into the compost pile.

This year the midge hatched well before the first blooms of the year nearly all of the damage was down low, In the form of what looks like blind growth, When picked off I could the burnt tip. Flower Girl is getting hit hard again as she with newer damage up higher. Yes i did bag every thing. However once these roses put on much size it will become humanly impossible to find it all.

Thanks everyone for any and all thoughts or ideas. I also read the yellow sticky card thing. It was last spring I believe. The cups would be more economical. Even it they just accidentally run into them it would help.

So sorry to hear that you have rose midge, Patty. :( I know what it is like. Besides the Safari chemical, I don't know what else is effective. I hope that you will find an organic way that is effective against midge. Someone mentioned in another thread that they used some sort of pet spray plus dish soap and this solution appeared to be effective in controlling midges.

Bioneem works some if you spray every 10 days, this is the only organic way I have learned last year...... I couldn't keep up with the spray though, had a lot of raining days. Do something to save your blooms, the growing season is so short up north.........

I was able to place around 80 yellow cups out yesterday. Could not get blue here so they will need ordered if I need them. I've been out with a magnifying glass. So far they have a darker colored midge (double winged) and quite a few western flower thrips. I do know that I have thrip predators here these last few years. I call them cheeto crumbs. So I'm also checking to be sure they aren't caught as well.

I found lots of blue cups at the Asian market. The insides of those blue cups are really white. None at Target. A few at Walmart--thicker plastic--but the inside is a mixture of blue/white. My last batch of cups were coated with chain saw oil, as I have lots of it in the garage.

The cups won't stay on the roses in the wind. What do you do? Chase after the cups down the street? :-)

Use a hole punch to create tie down holes?

An ice pick or knitting needle. Then used needle to guide yarn or what your using down one hole and up the other hole.

Diane they are stuck to the cups. Yippeeeeee! I don't expect perfect results but I'll take all the help I can get. I also had no idea there were so many thrips out already.

The midge don't all hatch at the same time. Some cups have lots while others haven't any yet. The cups certainly aren't the prettiest things out there.

Glad to hear your cups are working Patty! Yellow cups right?

Patty, Did any of your neighbors ask you about your cups? :-) Glad it's working, but how long are you going to have the cups on the roses? Rose buds need sun to bloom......

Jim they were yellow cups and they also get thrips.

summer, the cups hang by the rose. I have one down low and one higher but none are over the bush. I tied them to wires that I had. Then stuck the wires in the ground.

I might try this trick in my herb garden since I can't use chemicals there, I have about 30 roses in that garden. Do you have a photo of the cups in your garden, and what kind of oil did you use for inside the cups?

Would you please post a photo of the cups of one rose bush, Patty? I would love to see it too.

I'd be happy too. I post it tomorrow. What i don't know yet is if they were attracted to the cup. They may just get stuck by accident or blow on by a breeze. They are very tiny. I can't see them without a magnifying glass.

Okay here are the photos. The sun burst out before I got out there. I've got another 40 cups ready to coat this morning. Summer I coat the inside and outside. I was using cooking oil but switched to motor oil. It was a lot thicker and cheaper. I also switched how I hung the cups to a heavy garden string.So they could hang instead of wrapping the wire on the cup. Much easier to do. Well all of the photos so I'll end this comment so I can work on it.

New way with cup hanging from string.

Oops hit the submit button. The cups will not be so noticeable once the roses grow up. The biggest roses will get two cups. I can't believe how many trips are on these cups. So far I have not seen trips predators stuck on there. So this is good.

Flower Girls cups are loaded with thrips and midge.

Can I sneek a rose in here? This is the new At Last. Oh my goodness it's beautiful. Now if it is a disease resistant as they said. I'll be getting a whole bunch of these.

Thank you very much for the photos Patty! You are a gem. And I so love your flower beds - plants are so nicely spaced out. I need to restrain myself from filling every little unoccupied space.

Have no fear I split many perennials up and there are small pieces every where. It will be over crowded soon. I'm bad at that as well.

Thanks Patty for the info! Nice garden! I hope the midge is under control you will have thousands of blooms this year! :-)

No one would likely believe how many rose midge are stuck on those cups now. Flower Gril had nothing on the cups until yesterday. Now the cup is full of them. I have to use a magnifying glass to see them. I am finding many are in pairs. One with a longer narrow body. The other is shorter with a little fatter body.

I'm also moving the cup a bit with the breeze. So that the breeze blows thru the rose onto the cups. Just in case it's the breeze blowing them. Instead of them being attracted to the cup.

Patty, I went to the Botanical Garden in Niagara Falls Canada a couple of weeks ago, I talked to one gardener there, this year they used Predatory Nematodes for midge control, I saw the big difference, they had a lot more blooms this year compare to last spring.

Oh my gosh I did not realize there were any that would help. This was so kind of you to share your information. I'll spend tomorrow trying to find out what type of nematodes they are. Then where to purchase and how to apply them. Would you happen to know anything else about them. I wonder if they are the same as you would use for JBs. This would be the most exciting garden news I've heard in a long time. Thank you!