Thank you!

“ … the leaves look quite healthy, in general! Hope someone else can identify the bug, but if a plant in general is strong and healthy, it shouldn't be daunted by a bug issue.”

Moses will be pleased to hear this.

Andrea,

Pictures 1, 3, & 5 look like insect vomit. I kid you not. They are perhaps some kind of fly vomit from flies who are landing on the leaves, depositing their bodily fluids as black spots from eating....you guessed it, and not from eating your roses.

Pictures 2 & 6 look to my like mechanical or accident related damage, not insect damage.

Pictures 4 & 6 could be midge damage. If so, that's a problem that needs closer scrutiny. Rose Midge Fly is my most formidable enemy. The flies torture me and wreck havoc in my garden.

Classic midge damage looks like blind growth burned at its tip. No bud will form at that tip or if the midge fly was late in discovering a growing tip whose bud was just forming will render it grossly deformed, frequently crooked necked with only a half a bud forming. The midge fly female lays its eggs in a growing tip early on in its growth. The hatched maggots chew their way into the tip stopping any further progress. The maggots mature and fall to the ground most of the time where they pupate into adults. Sometimes they become pupae in the damaged tip where they proceed to becoming adults.

The only known control is conventional insecticide. No organic means of controlling midge fly has yet shown to be effective that I know of.

Watch your climber very carefully for further damage appearing elsewhere. If you have rose midge fly present in your garden, you are in for the battle royal of your life, gardening wise.

Moses

Moses: Do you have a reference for rose midge pupation in a damaged tip?

Yes, I will look it up. It is a visual where it appears a couple cocoons with silken threads have attached themselves to the underside of a rose leaf. Give me a little time to track the photo down. It surprised me that the brownish colored cocoons with larvae inside had first spun a hold fast system first, then spun the cocoon around themselves. Their final metamorphic stage is certainly not like the hard cask of the house fly.

You know, for the incredible amount of damage rose midge fly does, very little detailed information, with modern visuals showing complete life cycles is out there. I personally feel like I am fighting a phantom, with big gaps of important information missing that would help greatly in gaining a strong upper hand on them leading to a sure, dependable defense.

Moses

Rifis,

Here you go. The photo is at this NCState Extension Publication..."content.ces.ncsu.edu/rose-midge";. I believe the nymph in the middle had its silken hold fasts removed by the researcher to show the subject more clearly. The nymph to the far right seems to be undisturbed.

Now, perhaps the leaf had fallen to the ground. Perhaps also, when weather is wet it triggers the larvae to pupate in place, under a leaf, held safe from wet ground conditions. Perhaps in order to over winter successfully the final crop of midge fly of the season grow larger, thus heavier, and make super cocoons to survive in the soil surface. So many questions! It frustrates me.

Moses

That link was no good Moses. I know exactly how you feel. Many of the visuals and schematics and information I've gleamed are from the turn of the last century. I have spoken with the people at Ohio state Which were most helpful.

Click again Vaporvac. The red title page has a search box at the top. Type 'Rose Midge Fly,' in the search box. Select the first publication in the list of many. In it there is the photo of pupated rmf with silk webbing attaching themselves to the underside of a rose leaf.

Moses

Thanks. I followed your link and instructions. I saw the photo.

fyi: above the photo is text which includes:

“ although some pupae have been observed in damaged rose tips”

Seems logical Rifis. Some little buggers were just enveloped in the 'home,' that they had just eaten out for themselves. That's why infested tips should be removed ASAP after being discovered and quickly & safely be discarded.

Moses