Yup, very likely a grasshopper or katydid. Irritating, isn't it?

And, you know, I never see the grasshoppers. Only the damage. >:-(

Katydids would have been my guess. They don't generally hang around at the scene of the crime after the fact, but they LOVE to chew the flower buds...

Agreed: Grasshoppers and/or Katydids. For me, this is a late season phenomenon only.

katyajini: did you suspect it was katydids?

I just looked up katydids. They look like mini grasshoppers. I have seen them around but did not know they feel so entitled as to eat rose buds. How utterly, callously, decadent. And I will go on forgiving them.

Now rifis, I had taken a look at this thread earlier and I just KNEW it, that you were going to say that. Who gives those insects such a name?

Thanks everyone!

Heheh I wrote in a few years back with exactly the same sort of pics, and was told it was likely Katydids/grasshoppers. The neat almost forensically carved appearance is a dead giveaway. Sure enough, I went back out and had a closer look, and managed to locate the culprit still lurking around. I'm afraid I wasn't quite as forgiving as you katyajini :) In my defence, it had taken bits out of almost four blooms on the one little bush. Still- no more carved up roses,