little green worms on my roses........

Are they rose slugs and how do get rid of them?

pegdog, If they are eating holes in the leaves, and look like little baby catapillars probably so. Hang on while I get the correct spelling of the stuff to get rid of them. tracksinsand swears by the stuff, weird I had my rose slugs in Spring.

Diatomaceous Earth, and you can get it at Lowes, you do not want the pool grade stuff, I guess this is with the organic pestisides. If you read my "help we're being eaten alive" thread futher down the forum, theres a couple good links on the stuff ( not a long thread).

Do you have any pics, cause I'm out to get these dudes, I have a real issue with these guys. LOL

Hope that was some help.

I can get pix. Thanks, crash. All my fabulous new growth is twiggy and just plain ugly. It looks like I am growing rose sticks in my yard.

Doesn't the D. Earth harm beneficials??

Hello pegdg!

I am hearing it will destroy some earth worms, which I am not liking the sound of that. I had those rose slugs very early this year, and it was to my understanding that they are gone as fast as they come, I tried handpicking, and dishsoap sprays, but these thing are sooo fast, they devastated a climber in a matter of just like a day and a half maybe. They are very quick. I will have to see pics to tell you if they are the same thing I had,

As far as kiilling "good guys" , maybe limiting your treatment to just your roses would be the thing to do. If I get a chance, maybe I can find you a link to a thread this past spring on this subject with loads of info. For now I would defineitly spray them off, squish 'em , just get them off the bushes, because these thing are no joke.

Sorry to hear you are having problems, maybe it would be nice to know that you are not alone, I have the same thin, gaingly looking growth. I've had some problems this year as well, but I am learning. :)

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/724000/

Hope this helps :)

Thanks, crash - I haven't had trouble like this with rose slugs. They are destroying my roses! boo hoo. I have lots of natually found earthworms in my rose bed. I don't want to kill them off. What else can we do?

hey, here's a blub that BT doesn't work on rose slugs!
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00171.asp

I know what you mean, I have had to deal with alot this year because I won't spray, This stuff is supposed to be good. But I have yet to try it. The only thing I can tell you to do is just try to keep blasting them off, handpick, YUCK, using dishsoap seem to help but, when I got to 'em the damage was already done, and they dissappeared shortly after. It seems I did get to them before they slaughtered the others bushes too badly, they look ok. I am going to be trying milky spore next spring, because right now, I will go out to see a new bloom on one of the teas,and there will be sometimes, 20 japanese beetles all over it! they are killing me!! I have been squishing and blast them with dish soap too. Because I cannot bring myself to spray anything stronger.
So if you can come up with something, please let me know.

Hey pegdog!! Great news! sorry I cross posted before I read that, Thank you. I guess you just have to stay on top of them. I will be purchasing neem, For now I use, 1tbsp dishsoap, preferably citrus, 3tsp baking soda ( fungicide) and tsp of vegetable oil in a gallon sprayer add a gallon of water. I'm terrible even about doing this cause if it is way hot, it can still burn the plants. Will be replacing veg oil for neem, which I saw at Lowes just yesterday.

I heard neem is great, too. I just want them dead. Almost willing DEarth route. Look what they did!

and this:

And you can see 'em sitting there!

OMIGOSH, two on that last pic. I didn't even see the second one 1/2 way down till now.

Yup, Same nasty little bugger I have problems with. they are relentless, cold hearted, rose eating machines! My foliage has been awful this year because of them. After I sprayed, they did move to my rubeckia, so watch out. I usually all about "saving the planet" , but if wouldn't hurt my feelings if they were wiped from the face of the earth.

when you say "sprayed" do you mean DE?

Nope, just the dishsoap "recipe".

OK. And that gets them off the roses, but does it kill em?

In all honesty, pegdog, they are gone as fast as they destroy, I don't know if I killed them, or they just dissappeared. I'm sorry for being vauge, but that was my experience. But yes it did seem to help. It's like blackspot, an ounce of prevention thingie, now that we know the culprit, we need to act at the very first indication of them being there. I am going to be trying both methods. The reason I mentioned the earthworms was because I have fleas in my grass, hence different application. That is my concern. I would use the DE to dust roses in a heartbeat, and will as soon as I find some! LOL But I know for a fact Lowe's has the neem, and I will get some of that also. The neem is also effective as a fungicide. We know the DT kills our nasty little slug bandits. :)

Great! Looks like we've secured our own little "private" thread here. kinda of odd for this forum....

Funny, you said that, I was thinking the exact same thing!