Sherry, This may not be what is eating the leaves on your roses, but last summer I discovered that June bugs were responsible for eating my roses' leaves. I actually saw some June bugs eating the leaves on roses in my pot ghetto on the patio at night (the patio lights allowed me to see them quite clearly). Howard Garrett and Malcom Beck say "There are over 100 species of June Bugs in Texas..."in their book "Texas Bug Book the Good, the Bad & the Ugly". Their focus is on the species that causes damage to lawns while in the larval stage, and they add "Adult beetles chew leaves at night but are not highly destructive." When I lived in the Dallas area, I had more roses and a lot more June bugs, but I never had problems with them eating rose leaves. Here in the Houston area, we don't seem to have as many June bugs, but I am assuming that they are a slightly different species here that are particularly fond of roses. When I have seen them or their damage on the roses, I have noticed that they seem to prefer the older, thicker leaves and tend to leave the new soft growth alone. Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: June Bugs

bigdaddyj: Thanks so much for the valuable information regarding lacewings. Taking all your replies in this thread amounts to a treatise on lacewing management for mite, aphid and white fly control. I'm forunate to have an indigenous green lacewing population in my small backyard orchard/garden. Someone must have released them in the neighborhood years ago. I have no problems with mites, aphids, (one exception) or white fly. The exception is the plum leaf curl aphid. When these little ^$#@ feed on plum or pluot leaves, the leaves curl up into a tight cylinder creating an impenetrable safehouse for them inside. Neither human sprays nor, apparently, lacewings can get at them or their eggs. But I found that Dr. Bonner's liquid soap sprayed during the dormant season gets their over-wintering eggs on the twigs and branches. (All leaves have fallen). This year, for the first time I have no problems with plum leaf curl aphid. The picture is from last year's attack. I'm in So. Calif. so the lacewings can manage the mild winter I suppose. I can handle the tradeoff: indigenous lacewings for indigenous earthquakes. There still is no such thing as a free lunch. Tony

Well, these are the reasons I think I have spider mites: 1.) I see the webs and cannot see the pests. 2.) I lose clusters of leaves at a time 3.) My next door neighbors had them and sprayed chemicals to get rid of them. I absolutely agree, far too many sprays out there, although, again, I'd use them at this point if they actually worked. I can try to check with local nurseries and the University. Thanks for responding. I'm really a my wits' end. I also have whiteflies killing my evergreen trees and what can only be described as a plague of thistle taking over the place. This used to be such a beautiful garden.

You need to look at the growing conditions and work on correcting the problems there to get rid of these problems. Powdery Mildew appears as a whitish dust that easily wipes off and can be controlled with a spray made of either a 50/50 mix of fat free milk and water or a mix of 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda in 1 quart of water (3 tablespoons per gallon) . Maybe this article on Powdery Mildew might be of some help. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7493.html Insecticidal soap is a chemical, soap is a chemical. Most all dish soaps are detergents, not soap although the Food and Drug Administration has decided that a detergent and soap are the same thing. The simplest method of getting Aphids off a plant is with a sharp water spray to knock the wee buggers off. Perhaps this article about Aphids might be of some interest. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7404.html Control of Mealy Aphids, aka Mealy bugs, is similar to control of Aphids. Plants growing in a good healthy soil are les susceptible to many plant diseases and insect pests. Integrated Pest Management is less about finding something to spray that will kill the problem than it is about finding out why there is a problem and correcting that. kimmq is kimmsr