Rose leaf rolling sawfly

in : Problems: Roses

Symptoms

Young rose leaves nearest the bud curl up overnight; after a week, small green caterpillars hatch and start to strip the leaves.
Find it on roses
Time to act spring, summer

Problem categories

Overview

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
Young rose leaves nearest the bud curl up overnight; after a week, small green caterpillars hatch and start to strip the leaves.
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.

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Talkback: Rose leaf rolling sawfly
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kaycurtis 24/11/2011 at 15:28

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.