Well, SOMETHING has clearly eaten all of your foliage. It wasn't a moth.

Grasshoppers, maybe? Or Lord only knows.

Are your DAs the only small roses you have? Maybe a rabbit can reach this growth, but can't on your taller roses??? I have no idea. :(

https://www.amazon.com/trail-camera/s?k=trail+camera

When tomatoes began disappearing 2 years ago, I almost got one of these.

Until I saw a squirrel carrying away a large green tomato.

The odd thing is, no other plants have this type of damage -- just the DA roses. Maybe slugs? They did a number on my milkweeds this year. I haven't seen any on the roses -- but then again I was so focused on annihilating the ones on the milkweed I didn't even look at other plants.

I should get some insect net and throw it over the tops just in case it is something like a grasshopper or whatever. I have some lightweight floating row cover that might work in a pinch. My main concern at this point is getting them to put on new foliage to help to enable them to store up energy reserves for winter dormancy/next spring.

check at night ...

whatever it was.. they may be gone ...

green stems are photosynthesizing.. so i would not worry too much about it.. beyond your need to kill them, for attacking your rose babies ...

this was about the time of year.. when i would give my roses one last dose of fert for fall growth.. but to be sure they were winding down by mid to late september for our MI winter ...

ken

I think it’s grasshoppers. That is the problem I’m having here as well . They strip all my new growth and munch the buds as well . But only a bite and then leave me the remains . I hate them . I recently found a whole army of babies .

Lilyfinch - those baby grasshoppers are darling!!!! So cute!!! But, yes...they're horrible. I've just never seen baby grasshoppers before. Did you dispatch them? :)

Well I’m not sure . I had some captain jacks spray nearby and I sprayed them but they hopped off the leafs and I’ve seen a couple since . Hopefully it got them tho . If not they’ll grow up and get revenge for sure ! 😂

Yes...when they grow up...yikes...the damage they can cause!

in all my years.. i havent seen a biblical plague of grasshoppers in MI ... id be very surprised ... but im not saying its not possible ... '

I had the same thing happen to part of one of my roses this year and I would not be surprised at all to learn it was grasshoppers. There as SO MANY here. Literally, I walk or bike with my kids down the walking paths here and there are hundreds and hundreds of them all down the path, they jump in every direction as you walk/bike through and inevitably they end up jumping into you. Fun times in late summer 🙄 lol.

I saw a lot of grasshoppers when I was up in northern MI a few weeks ago, and I've seen a couple in my vegetable garden. So it's entirely possibly it's grasshoppers.

I've seen a huge decline in grasshoppers over the years, and it bothers me about the negative, murderous attitude some of you have towards them. It looks more like caterpillar or sawfly damage to me. I've been lucky to see about 2 grasshoppers all season long. What's in this Captain Jack's spray? Does it kill insects without discretion? We are losing all our insects. Wake up!

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/savanna/tables/table14.html

Goodness, we have a negative, murderous attitude toward the innocent grasshopper. Insects will inherit our world when we're long gone. They are the most successful biological class on this planet. Diane

Magpie - that sounds terrible!

I love your sign, Jay!! It's a bit different though if there are plague numbers or invasive insects like Japanese Beetles that shouldn't be here. And I will squish sawfly larvae if I find them.

I agree that making severe insect poisons in the garden the first "go to" solution is a very bad idea, and is probably what is killing honey and other bees all over the place. If this problem is only affecting one rose, I would try a hard blast of water first, over and under all of the leaves, and then see what happens.

Jackie

@rosecanadian haha, well it's not terrible but more annoying. And a bit amusing. Walking down the path is like parting the sea... of grasshoppers.

@Diane Brakefield I do agree that insects will survive any horrible imbalance that we throw this planet into. It's us that won't be able to adapt to the most extreme conditions.

@Jay 6a Chicago I agree with you for the most part, but I doubt a condescending approach is going to win anybody to your side. If the issue is important to you, get off your horse when you want to talk to people about it maybe.

I vowed I wouldn't return, but I do believe that mosquitos, the most lethal animal on the planet, and cockroaches, not to mention myriad flies will inherit the planet. I say this as one educated in zoology, which included huge doses of environmental science, as well as entomology. I just mentioned that to explain how my opinions were come by over the years. Diane

I was educated in etymology and similiar disciplines.

And I’d just like to mention that there’s no zoo in zoology.

woops Credit to Charles Harrington Elster

Rifis, one of the first things my zoology professor told us idiots was there was "no zoo in zoology". You are correct. I was not educated in etymology. Diane

Insects will inherit our world when we're long gone.

Here where I live insects are already almost gone but are more and more people.

Normally I wouldn’t consider the grasshoppers a threat ! I guess I should have stated that this year , the last two months of rose gardening , I’ve been fighting them . They grow to be about 4 inches long and have stripped the foliage off of the majority of my back yard roses. They eat most of my buds before I can enjoy them . It is a plague for me personally. I’m not sure why my garden has attracted so many but it has . And I don’t see anything wrong with defending my roses from them . However , I let them go too long and at this point I’d be thrilled if I could just see some blooms left alone!

Captain jacks is used for bud worms , a huge problem here as well .

When I had a huge garden , I had less problems. ( or they were spread out more? )Now I have a small garden , and seem to have more issues than I ever did . I’m not saying anyone has to treat for them , I’m just saying her damage looks exactly like mine , and what was causing it .

If you're plagued with too many grasshoppers you can catch them and eat them. They are a tasty delicacy in Mexico, with high protein and no big carbon footprint like cattle farming.

Stay open.

Floating row cover should work, too.