What methods are you using to combat it??

I used insecticidal soap but it was originally for the gypsy moths

So I just read up on rose midge and the life cycle and I will get some neem

Unfortunately I don't think that will be useful against rose midge...

Hi, I'm in zone 5B, Staten Island, NY... I haven't taken any photos this spring but will include some tomorrow. I didn't like the idea of using a harsh chemical but the fact that these freakish things were destroying my roses really enraged me..

I was responding to

gibsongirl74_gw who said that she was going to use neem oil for rose midge..

From the reading I did, I gathered that neem was not a great treatment for rose midge. So, I went with something else. I'm not sure if something about what I have posted rubs you the wrong way Samuel, but I'm a bit confused as to why you keep insisting on photos.. In any event, here are some from last year in another thread.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3971192/i-must-brag-but-just-this-once

I recycle used cooking oil to make midge traps. I wear disposable nitrile gloves and cover blue cups with cooking oil.

I'd like to hear from anyone with an anecdotal story or study attesting to neem's effectiveness (or lack thereof) in preventing midge rose damage.

Yes I am curious if need even works. I will try the blue cups zack! Thank you Zack for your post about rose midge in ct or I wouldn't have realized what it was.

My long term battle with midge goes on, too.

The midge fly maggots (rarely just one maggot per infested tip), are so deeply imbedded in the compact, tightly leafed layer of the tip that the possibility of oil getting to them at all or in an amount that is lethal is very low. The tip resists oil sticking, and if you could get thick oil to stay at the tip long enough for it to seep between the tightly packed layers of growth to where the midge maggots are imbedded, the oil would likely injure the delicate tip considerably.

Systemic insecticide: sprayed for foliar intake, or soil drenched for root uptake, or granularly applied to the rose bed soil as a nymph/cocoon killer through fumigation and/or dilution through water solution direct contact with the cocoon, does work.

Moses

Would laying plastic on the ground prevent those falling from pupating, and those hatching from flying to the branches? I'm sick because I have either this or chili thrips. How does one tell the difference? I kept wondering why my Munstead Wood was not growing or blooming and others in pots looked crispy. I thought it was just hot weather and no rain for a bit. Would tobacco spray help? How did I get this? Could it have come in my new plants? Uggh! And I just caught to JB yesterday.

The bug doc addresses some of your questions, vaporvac, in his slide presentation here http://studylib.net/doc/5320143/rose-midge---the-ohio-state-university.

Laying plastic is one organic way vaporvac... But I always wondered how you keep from smothering the roots? You think you wouldn't want to keep plastic over the root system very long...

This rose is supposed to be very resistant to rose midge.

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.44285.0

Thank you, all. Yes, Jim I was just thinking as a temporary thing to help break their life cycle. I haven't mulched my main rose bed yet, so it wouldn't be that much trouble and I could just tie a baggie around the pots. Not attractive, but better than no blooms. ; ) Now I just need to find a way to keep the d!@n chipmunks out of the bed and pots.

henry-I read that Raddler was trying to breed a thick skinned rose that would be impervious to rose midge. I wonder if this is one of them?

Sharon