Rose Gardening Tips: Pest Management
Pests are the bane of rose gardening. Here are some rose gardening tips exclusively targeting the types of insects you are bound to come across and how to manage their attacks.
One of the easiest ways to prevent pests from attacking your roses is to introduce some plant diversity in your garden. Nasturtiums trap aphids and plants like thyme, geranium, and rosemary attract insects which feed on the harmful pests. While planting, spray a 2% concentration of soap and reapply once in fifteen days to keep aphids and other insects away. Place garlic around the base of your rose plant and sprinkle Cheyenne and black pepper around your garden to repel insects. Oil or lime and sulfur sprays suffocate eggs and larvae before they can hatch.
Aphids are red, yellow, green, or black in color and are found on and around roses. They feed on new growth. Spraying water will wash them away.
Japanese Beetles are hard shelled and green with black and gold shades. These beetles usually assail the rose bush in a group. Sevin, a chemical spray, is known to repel these persistent pests. However, they usually return after some time.
Spider Mites are initially pale green and soon turn into red, black, or brown. They are very tiny and feed on the sap from under the leaves. The classic symptom is yellowing of the upper surface of the leaves. Immediately remove and destroy all the damaged leaves and spray the plant with sulfur 50 WP 2 gm/ liter of water. Proper irrigation and clean environs can prevent onset of spider mites.
Leaf Cutter Bees are mostly harmless as they just neatly cut out the rose leaves and use them to create partitions for their eggs in their hives. They don’t harm the plant in any other way.
Thrips live inside rose blooms and leave your flowers deformed or flecked or the petals with a scratched appearance. Insecticidal soaps are known to help but it is usually very difficult to control thrips.
Castor Semi-looper is destructive in the larva stage and feeds on rose leaves; so when you see these caterpillars, handpick them and spray with methyl parathion 1 ml.
Gram caterpillar loves to feed on the inside of rose buds. The larva is green with intermittent bands of dark and pale grey. A spray of endosulfan 0.07% might help.
Rose Scale sucks the sap out of mature shoots depleting the vigor of your rose plant. You can identify a rose scale attack by the reddish brown encrustation on the plant. Immediately cut and burn the affected parts of the plant and rub the scales off with cotton dipped in kerosene. Spraying malathion 2 ml/liter of water at pruning might help in controlling rose scales.
Termite feeds on roots of both mature and young rose plants. They look like ants with dark colored heads. They thrive in dry soil conditions so the key to keeping termites at bay is to keep your soil moist at all times. Remove and destroy termite mounds as soon as you see them in your garden. Drenching soil, infested with termites, with lindane 2 ml /liter of water will help.
Lesser known insects that could attack your rose plant are rose leaf lopper, rose beetle, rose curculio, flathead borer, and rose slug. Avoid random spraying of insecticides on your plants as you may end up killing the beneficial ones like ladybugs (eat aphids), nematodes (prey on Japanese beetles), the praying mantis, and mini-wasps.
Discuss all methods of prevention and control with your local nursery and your gardening friends before you start your rose garden.
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