I would strip off the dead leaves but leave all canes that look healthy. Canes contain stored nutrients. The recovering plants will look leggy, but they will be stronger than if you pruned severely.

If you would like us to confirm your diagnosis, please post sharp closeup pictures of the leaves, or clearly describe symptoms and history of the disorder.

If it is spider mites, flush the plants with a strong spray of water every day or two for a while. Hit the underside of the leaves.

What chemical did you apply?

Spider mites have a 3 to 5 day reproductive cycle (depending on the temperature). Whatever you treated them with, you need to do it multiple times, probably 3 times in a row on a 3 to 4 day schedule -- otherwise the eggs laid by the ones you killed with your spray will hatch and you'll still have just as many spider mites on hand to continue the attack.

Ugh...I know they are spider mites. The underside of the leaves have webbing. The veins are yellowed and the leaves eventually yellow and dry out/ fall out. They are almost totally defoliated. I actually can see those psycho helter skelter little red DOTS running around. Tiny spiders. Little B&%t@#ds!

Get out there and thoroughly spray them down with water at least once a day every single day for a while. Spider mites like dry conditions.

Hopefully if you did use chemicals you used a miticide not an insecticide, which will not work.

In our garden, the use of broad spectrum insecticides on the leaves often results in an outbreak of mites, as the beneficial predators that keep the mites in check are killed off.

I have been using the Bayer 2 in 1 granules and the water blast.

and th 3 in 1 spray

Mites are not insects. The insecticide included in the Bayer products does not kill them. As Zac said, it can actually make things worse by killing their predators.

Repeated rinsing of the undersides of the leaves, as others have said, is a good way to reduce the population.

Do these roses get reflected heat from a wall? This can encourage mites to colonize on lower leaves.

When you say the veins of the leaves are yellowed this makes me suspect problems with your soil pH. Also, make sure you are not overfertilizing, which can cause leaf damage and defoliation.

thank you all.i think i am guilty of all of the above...always of over fertilizing. and then there is the heat....

Some of the Bayer products do have a miticide included: Tau-fluvinate, which, granted is not the best one out there, but the better ones are way more expensive. Check the label -- does whatever Bayer product you used include the Tau-Fluvinate?

Washing the undersides of the leaves with a hard spray of water is good, but for me, it was never fully effective.

With Tau-Fluvinate and all other miticides however, the key to effectively knocking down an existing population of mites is to repeatedly apply it, at 3 to 4 day intervals. The goal is to interrupt the reproductive cycle.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bayer's new

I am also having difficulty getting to the underside of leaves. HAve to lie on the ground. I actually think I have two distinct problems. There is webbing all over my bark chips in the morning. Could I have spiders ( which I see lots of) AND the mites? And if you don't like Tau-fluvinate, what do you suggest?
TYIA

The only spiders that are problems for the roses are the spider mites. Other spiders (as long as they aren't poisonous to me) are welcome in my roses and they generally eat the bad bugs.

And you don't have to lie on the ground to spray upwards with water -- get a good hose-end Water Wand for that, and use the "jet" setting for spraying up at the mites, who reside on the bottom sides of the leaves. I also saw good water wands with "jet" settings at CostCo recently. The ones that just have a single wide spray pattern don't work for this.

As for other chemicals, I think they are all too expensive for the usual home gardener. But since you asked, the one I use is Floramite

Thanks, K. The Floramite is not cost prohibitive but after reading the MSDS, I hesitate to use this chemical around my 3 Wheaten Terriers who roam freely in the back yard. Any less toxic suggestions ( cost irrelevant) would be appreciated.
Thanks for the help.
Susan

I use Neem oil when the beneficial bugs can't hack it because I have chihuahua and they absorb chemicals easily (being small). Also mine are dead sure to EAT any grass/weed with spray on it they can reach. Neem also won't bother your ladybugs or bees but is an effective miticide and works on aphids as well

Bonus, it will also treat blackspot and powerdry mildew.

Any of these miticides would also work. Most of these products can be found in smaller quantities for less money other places on the web. But this is a good website to get to all the labels and MSDS's.

Since we no longer spray with insecticides, mites are a rare and random visitor here.
Water-washing does the job, and I gave up on miticides after one of them melted the surface of a plastic measuring spoon. Seriously.

We have dogs, too. Spraying stopped here when we realized that every spraying triggered seizures in our old dog. He's long-gone, but we're happy without the sprays.

As for neem oil -- not great for bees, but we do use it on rare occasions.
Never, EVER in hot weather, though, when most any hort oil will burn foliage. (Been there. Done that.)

Jeri