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Insects Injurious to Roses

Aphis or plant lice are frequently found on roses and cause considerable damage unless controlled. Black-leaf 40, whale-oil soap, or any good contact insecticide will prove effective.

Rose chafers, also known as rose beetles or rose bugs, are the most destructive of all the rose enemies. They have voracious appetites, feeding upon both the foliage and the blooms, and having a particular passion for white flowers. They are too wily and too hardy to be successfully ensnared by any poison spray that has as yet been found, and the only really satisfactory measure is tedious hand picking of the marauders. They should be dropped into a receptacle containing kerosene. Laborious though this method may be, one gladly resorts to it rather than see cherished blooms destroyed. Rose-leaf hoppers are far less common than the aphis and rose beetles, and they may be easily controlled by any contact spray.

Rose-leaf rollers, while not often found, do occasionally cause serious trouble in the rose garden. Arsenate of lead is the most effective spray, one ounce to one and one-half gallons of water.