green catepillar

by Juanita
(London, Ontario, Canada)

green catepillar on rose bushes

I have this small, soft, green catepillar that eats circles in the leaves of my rose bushes (only my rose bushes) and nibbles on the new buds. This insect curles up when not eating. I hand pick them off but what else can I do?

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green catepillar

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Success!
by: Moni

Great to hear you have been successful in getting rid of the pest. May your roses bloom even more for you for being so good to them!

Thanks for the info
by: Juanita

Well, this is a great little site.
Thanks to all who have given me some advice of this little pest-larva. I have been diligently picking them off and for 2 weeks now, haven't seen anymore. Will keep on top of this from now on.

Bt for caterpillars
by: Moni

Nori
Bt works well for the caterpillars of butterflies and moths(order Lepidoptera) and will not work well for sawflies(order Hymenoptera - bees and wasps). Tho sawflies look like caterpillars, they are different enough that Bt does not work for them.
Bt is great for cabbage worms or tent caterpillars, but thanks for being careful to not use it where it could hurt our beautiful butterfly caterpillars!

I squish 'em, too!
by: Nori Lane Bishop

When the rose sawfly larvae are first out and active on the rose leaves, they are very very tiny, and most of us miss them entirely, as they tend to hang out on the undersides of the leaves. By the time we notice the holes in the leaves, they have been munching away for awhile, and with such an appetite, they have gotten bigger. The longer they go before you squish them, the bigger they get. So it's easiest to squish them when they're very small. So the best time to get them is early, finding them by patrolling the roses early in the summer or late spring. They also seem to produce successive batches of larvae, or continuous hatching of them, since I've found others that have gotten large and done a bit of damage after I thought I'd killed them all and would be safe for the rest of the season. As they were eating roses in the garden of one of my clients, I didn't see them for a couple of weeks, and then they were large and happy, and I was not so happy squishong them! I tried spraying them with baccillus Thuringensis one year, but it didn't seem to be very effective escept for the ones that were sprayed directly, and I try to be very careful with bT in order to avoid killing the larvae of beneficial insects and butterflies.
Thanks, Moni, for the info about the Safers' Soap, Neem, etc.
Good luck, all!

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Submitted by: Nori Lane Bishop

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When the rose sawfly larvae are first out and active on the rose leaves, they are very very tiny, and most of us miss them entirely, as they tend to hang out on the undersides of the leaves. By the time we notice the holes in the leaves, they have been munching away for awhile, and with such an appetite, they have gotten bigger. The longer they go before you squish them, the bigger they get. So it's easiest to squish them when they're very small. So the best time to get them is early, finding them by patrolling the roses early in the summer or late spring. They also seem to produce successive batches of larvae, or continuous hatching of them, since I've found others that have gotten large and done a bit of damage after I thought I'd killed them all and would be safe for the rest of the season. As they were eating roses in the garden of one of my clients, I didn't see them for a couple of weeks, and then they were large and happy, and I was not so happy squishong them! I tried spraying them with baccillus Thuringensis one year, but it didn't seem to be very effective escept for the ones that were sprayed directly, and I try to be very careful with bT in order to avoid killing the larvae of beneficial insects and butterflies. Thanks, Moni, for the info about the Safers' Soap, Neem, etc. Good luck, all!

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I squish 'em.
by: Connie

I'm a mom, so catepillar goo doesn't gross me out. When looking over the roses, (and other front of the border stuff) I "fondle" the new leaves between thumb and finger firmly enough to rub 'em out. Works for aphids, too.

Rose sawfly larva
by: Moni

From your description about it curling would make me think it is the Curled rose sawfly larva.One article says they enter the pith of rose canes through pruning cuts and pupates there. If so it is important to avoid fall pruning when the wood does not heal over quickly and prune out infested canes below the insect as soon as possible.
Sawflies are best controlled when young. Picking them off by hand is the first option. You can also try dislodging them with a stick or a stream of water (if using water be sure to spray early to allow foliage to dry by sunset so you do not leave moisture for fungal diseases), horticultural oil, insecticidal soap, rotenone or neem, are things to apply for young sawflies.
Good Luck!

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