No, I don't even know what Mosquito Dunk is. If your specimen is in a pot, I would douse it religiously with the Bayer product, the one with cyflurthin. You are doing no harm to your garden soil because your rose is in a pot. If you transplant the rose to the garden you do not want midge larvae in the pot or every rose in your garden will soon be infested. Kill those suckers first! When it is healthy and pest free, you can plant in early spring by bare rooting the rose and planting in fresh garden soil.

Barbara

Mosquito Dunk is BT Israelensis, bacteria that are used to kill insects in their larval form. It works well on mosquitos when applied to water where mosquito larvae live. It's also available as a liquid so it can be sprayed on foliage to kill larval leave chewers, aka caterpillars.

Since the larval form of midge lives on the rose, not in the soil, I'd think you'd have to use the foliar spray, not a soils drench, of BT. The question is whether the larvae will ingest enough BT to kill them when they gnaw on the new growth on your roses. You'd have to be very diligent about spraying the new growth, since it appears irregularly. This article has a good explanation of the life cycle of the midge, so you know what you're up against.

According to Baldo, the best control is belt and suspenders: both soil treatment and foliar spray. If it were me and if I lived where rose midge is a big problem, I'd pull out the big guns and nuke them. Here in Northern California, they exist (probably imported with roses) but have a hard time thriving without overhead irrigation.

Here is a link that might be useful: Canadian study of rose midge

Read this one too

Here is a link that might be useful: More on rose midge

Thanks for the posts. I had read the newer article before and searched all over for the Doktor Doom soil drench product but couldn't find it anywhere. Anyone know where to get it?

I don't think the mosquito dunks would work. The midge larvae are deep down inside the rose cane buds, not out on the surface. You wouldn't be able to get the spray to where they're feeding, and it's not systemic at all.

But from what I've read, neither B-Cyfluthrin nor Permethrin are systemic at all. So, according to this study-
http://www.bclna.com/Report_Rose_Midge.pdf

The .50% Permethrin soil drench seemed to be the most effective because it killed the soil dwelling phase of Rose Midge. I can not find the Doktor Doom product anywhere, but I have found this:
http://bugsource.com/permethrin_10_.html

which seems like a better option to me. 5 1/2 ounces in 1 Gal. water gives .50%. And there is enough to last a couple seasons. Unless someone can think of a reason not to, I am going to go forward with the Permethrin. I am very hopeful that this will take care of the Rose Midge or at least knock it way down. No spraying, no toxicity for me or our pets! I'm excited!

Doktor Doom isn't sold in the USA, as far as I can tell. It's a Canadian product.

Wilderness - when you say pets, what kind of pets are we discussing? Apparently Permethrin is very toxic to cats and fish, though not so much to other mammals.

From Wiki:
Permethrin acts as neurotoxin, slowing down the nervous system through binding to sodium channels. This action is negatively correlated to temperature, thus generally showing more acute effects on cold-blooded animals (insects, fish, frogs...) over warm-blooded animals (mammals and birds):

* Permethrin is extremely toxic to fish and aquatic life in general, so extreme care must be taken when using products containing permethrin near water sources.
* Permethrin is also highly toxic to cats and flea and tick repellent formulas intended and labeled for (the more resistant) dogs may contain permethrin and cause feline permethrin toxicosis in cats.[7]

* Very high doses will have tangible neurotoxic effects on mammals and birds, including human beings.

Permethrin does not present any notable genotoxicity or immunotoxicity in humans and farm animals.

Permethrin is classified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a likely human carcinogen, based on reproducible studies in which mice fed permethrin developed liver and lung tumors.[8] Carcinogenic action in nasal mucosal cells for inhalation exposure is suspected due to observed genotoxicity in human tissue samples, and in rat livers the evidence of increased preneoplastic lesions lends concern over oral exposure.[9][10]

Recent studies (Bloomquist et al., 2002) [11] have linked permethrin exposure to Parkinson's disease, including very small (per kg.) exposures:

"Our studies have documented low-dose effects of permethrin, doses below one-one thousandth of a lethal dose for a mouse, with effects on those brain pathways involved in Parkinson's Disease [...] We have found effects consistent with a pre-parkinsonsian condition, but not yet full-blown parkinsonism." [12][13]

Due to high toxicity for aquatic life, permethrin and permethrin-contaminated water should be properly disposed of. Degradation is quick and should the chemical be trashed far from any aquatic life, the negative effects would be minimized. Ideally, in a non-industrial context, the contaminant can be set in the light to induce photodegradation. Contaminated water set in direct sunlight exposure will be cleared of the permethrin and any known pollutant subproducts after a few hours.

Recently, in South Africa, residues of permethrin were found in breast milk, together with DDT, in an area that experienced DDT treatment for malaria control, as well as the use of pyrethroids in small-scale agriculture.[14]

I feel your pain with the midge; I believe I'm having some level of success with granular imidicloprid that I water in. I'm still finding maggoty tips here and there, but almost all of my roses are setting buds.

Good luck!

Lara

Here is a link that might be useful: Full Wiki page

Soon after posting my last message, I read this info on Wiki. It is a bit worrisome with regard to the cat. So we have decided to keep him in the house for at least a week afterwards, maybe even longer as permethrin does hang around a while. The good thing is that I will only be using .50% and only on the soil of some potted plants. The stuff that is out there for use on dogs, and has mistakenly been used on cats and had tragic consequences, is in the 40-50% range. There are products containing permethrin labeled for use on cats, but they contain around .1%. So while what I will use is 5 times stronger than the stuff labeled to apply directly to the cat, as long as we keep him in the house for a week or so, and then keep him out of the pots for a while it should be fine. He is always supervised when he is outside. Hopefully this will solve our midge problem.

Just an update. I have not sprayed Permethrin yet, the wikipedia page is a bit frightening. I wasnt seeing any damage and was hoping that because I moved some pots around, I had made them go away. Silly me, I just noticed that my Rose de Rescht is eaten up with damage. So, next week, spray time. Will see how it works...

wildrnesexperienc, where are you in California?

So, BT soil drench doesn't work at all? What about Ortho rose and flower care as foliar spray and soil spray?

wildernesxperienc, I covered my pots soil with landscape fabric. placed them on a non-soil surface and have 99% eradicated them from my pot pets. This breaks their life cycle as they can no longer pupate or get to the growing stems. The very rare damage I've seen ( 5 midged tips on over 30 plants) I attribute to those blown in from elsewhere, those that MAY have pupated in the stems or a longer than usual maggot phase due to cooler weather. Prior, I was spraying the tips with tobacco tea with good result, but as it's not systemic and breaks down in sunlight, it took a lot of time. I'm sure with that step it would be 100% after a month, but I'm very pleased not to do even that. The bonus with the fabric is that is also helps with sawfly.

In addition, I've covered the drip line of my planted roses with plastic and have almost as good results. Of course, I had to allow for drainage, so it isn't quite as good. I may replace it with fabric for the winter after applying amendments and try to nip them in the bud, so to speak, next spring. Please be aware that some of the drenches can persist in the soil for a year.