The rose leaf rolling sawfly injects a chemical into young rose leaves to cause them to curl protectively around her eggs. Within a week the eggs hatch into green caterpillars that start to eat their home. In mid-summer, leaving behind skeletonised foliage, they crawl down into the soil to overwinter.
Solution
Organic
When small numbers of leaves are affected, remove and destroy the tubular foliage. With large numbers of leaves, they are best left or the rose will suffer. In winter, carefully fork over the soil around the base of the rose to expose the larvae to hungry birds, but don't damage the roots.
Chemical
In the case of large infestations, try spraying with thiacloprid insecticide, but there's no guarantee that it'll reach the well-protected larvae tucked up inside the leaf tubes.
Comments and rating
Overall rating (from 1 ratings):
kaycurtis rated and commented on this article
25 September 2009
5 out of 5
This feature really helpful, I did find these nasty little critters on one of my roses, I killed them, hoping now that I managed to get all of them.
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