There are multiple borers and the damage they do varies. Baldo has written that his borers only go a short way into the canes. In my garden, I've found larvae four or five inches down. (Those HAVE to be two different critters.) Yesterday I found a really disgusting nest of ants in a rose cane; carpenter ants tending their young. (Gone now). Something I've tried to get numbers on, and have had zero success with, is timing when my borers get active. When I've done a HT pruning in early January, the cut surfaces ahve hardened off and the borers haven't been a problem. But when I pruned when the local rose society recommended (to get HT blooms for a scheduled show), I found most canes were bored. That implied an early to mid April borer activity here. Sealers worked, BTW. That late Easter freeze two years ago knocked my plannings for a loop and the critters haven't had many good canes to go into for the past two years.

I've heard people knock this rose for shattering fast, but I love mine. It's situated so that it's the first rose I see walking down my steps, and is almost always in bloom.

That is terrible, Diane. So sorry to hear about your Evelyn! Sara-Ann, I don't know if this is any consolation to you but my bareroot DA roses that I bought from DA website are doing just ok, not great. They gave me a bloom here and there but nothing I would call a flush. They don't really have robust growths either. Perhaps they need a few years to be established? The ones I bought at a local nursery do much better. Diane is definitely right about her recommendation of buying potted DAs from local nursery. That is what i will do from now on.

I'm with Ken, this is exactly how my Courageous rose looks once Japanese beatle season begins. The insecticide won't help either, my only solution is to go outside early evening pluck them off one by one into a bucket of soapy water. This reduces the population til they are gone. These beatles get slugish by early evening and its easy to get them. Sadly I saw some on my neighbors rose yesterday so I know they are heading my way. :(