I had the same thing happen to me last year. Thankfully, it was on a rose that was at least 12 feet from my other roses and I caught it pretty early. I dug out the rose and immediately slipped it into a garbage bag and into my garbage can along with at least 4 inches of the soil surrounding it. Then I took clear plastic and placed it all along the area where I had planted the rose. Then I took blue sticky traps and put them at about 16 inches above the plastic. I weighted all of the plastic down and left it there for the winter. I won’t remove it until at least a year from now. I get REAL serious about getting rid of pests. I NEVER want to see midge in my garden again. Even if it means destroying a $60 rose.

Last year a local nursery unknowingly imported Japanese Beetles into our city. I won’t purchase roses from any local nursery, Big Box Store or online unless I get them bare root.

This year, I purchased roses only from High Country Roses because I have never had any problems with Matt’s roses. I also pot them up and quarantine them in my covered window wells for a few months until I know they are safe. I do not purchase roses from anyone who has Rose Rosette disease in their area. Thankfully, sellers have been very honest with me when I ask.

Rebecca

Rebecca, Your approach is probably the one I should have taken immediately. I thought I knew which roses the midge came in on, and I re-potted them and gave them a harsh pruning. That seems to have worked for the potted roses, but unfortunately there was one that I had already planted. Rather than digging it up immediately as I should have, I decided to try a combination of pruning and mulching with paper bags. That seems to have failed. I think I'll dig up that rose, and the one next to it. Of course the midge will probably move to one of the currently unaffected roses, if I do that... Maybe I should just dig out everything and pot it all up, and discard whatever I can't manage to cram into a pot. That would be depressing, but midge itself is so darned demoralizing. I'm also worried that the midge may be surviving amongst my potted roses at low levels that I haven't noticed. It would be awful to bring it with me when I move someday!

I have been using a double layer of landscape cloth as a barrier; but plastic would no doubt be better. I confess I've also used Bayer granules; my infected rose is a huge bush of the Fairy. Much too late to dig it.. Miraculously, the infection has not spread to the neighboring plants (Vanity and Lyda Rose).

I also use the cups (orange works as well as blue) sprayed with cooking oil and suspended on sticks. This really seems to help.

I closely watch the plant itself and quickly snip off any affected growth and bag it in a ZipLock bag. At one point last year I removed ALL the tip growth.

Is there a map of where midge is prevalent?

None of us are gung ho about insecticides, but in an isolated, limited area that you are describing, I would probably use something. If you are snipping/ disbudding, the bees wont be affected anyway. I believe the recommended products contain imidaclorid and cyfluthrin - I think the Bayer granules?

I agree with you, Dingo. I will use Bayer granules on all of my roses if necessary to eradicate the midge. I have never used any insecticide before and don’t even use chemical weed killer on my lawn. I use Iron-X. However, the thought of growing roses without blooms seems crazy to me. I will use the granules until the midge is killed. Hopefully, that will be within a season or two. And then go back to my no spray garden.

Rebecca

I have seen some people speculate that removing all roses from a garden for a year or two would eradicate midge. I wonder if anyone has tried it.

Oh what a price to pay, KS. What happens if your neighbor has it?

Here is an article I found on Google. https://indianapolisrosesociety.com/articles/rose-midge/

Rebecca

I am at the edge of an industrial zone, so my roses are relatively isolated from others. Mostly I am concerned that some midge might be living in the roses I grow in containers, and all of the effort of removing the ones that are planted out would be for naught. It would be REALLY SAD to dig out the roses from my yard and then just reintroduce midge by accident.

Thanks Lisa, I will try to send you a message about this.

LIsa,

i like your idea, and agree we all should know if a rose seller is going to sell us a problem, but we don’t want to be malicious, so in an an effort to make this info. positive and as widely available as possible, perhaps we should try to put together an on forum list of nurseries who we have never had a plant health problem with. KS, sorry for taking your topic astray, but I think we could do some good for the community with this.

What do you think?

claire

That’s a great idea, Clair! Even better than quietly discussing our suspicions. I will publicly say this about the messages I have received; It’s all over the map! It seems like almost every one who’s messaged me has a different vendor they suspect in mind. This makes me ultra glad we didn’t name any names “out in the open”. It also seems impossible to find the true source when roses are purchased from multiple vendors. Just like my experience, everyone has a suspect, but also “might have kept various potted roses together, before planting”, or various versions of this. If everyone had the same nursery in mind, that might have meant something, but so far that’s not the case. Lisa

I can start by saying that I’ve never had a problem with my roses from Burlington. They’ve been free from everything. No one who has contacted me has had problems with Burling’s roses, either. Lisa

It is good to know which sources are consistently providing healthy plants! Next year I will order from Burlington for sure. I think another question would be what sort of "best practices" can we all adopt on our end? Quarantine? Immediately re-potting and discarding soil? Pruning/defoliating? Having some sort of insecticide on hand to treat plants that go into quarantine, even for people who HATE that stuff (like me)?

For bands I would quarantine on a solid surface and perhaps apply something to the soil since I disbud mine anyway. I'd be afraid to bareroot them and damage the tiny roots. Lastly, I will put landscape fabric on top just in case. Just isolating and using the fabric worked for me last year.

I second Burling, she is the only non-dormant Rose vendor I buy from anymore. , never a health problem! I am also happy with bare roots from Hortico, but that is a different kettle of fish!

as far as bio security goes, I would not be afraid to wash roots, that is what I do when I send someone a rooted cutting, wash off all soil and wrap up in damp paper, seems to be ok with the roses so far. I also am blessed with a large property, so would put new plants far from the rose garden.

stay safe!

claire

Is there something anyone can recommend to soak the roots in, after removing a potted rose from its shipping container, or any container for that matter? It’s not easy to blast every bit of soil off the roots without getting that wet soil everywhere! Even on a stone patio, it’s nearly impossible to clean it all up until after it dries. Obviously you can’t lay it on the grass and blast it with water. I’d rather dump the soil into a large bag, shake as much soil from the roots as possible into the bag, and then soak/swish the rest of the soil bits off in a bucket of water. What could be mixed with the water in the bucket to kill any potentially remaining midge larvae? Then, what’s the safe and responsible way to discard the mix, afterwards? What a PEST! Lisa

When I re-potted last summer, I discarded the soil in the garbage, and rinsed the roses off in the sink (so any dirt that clung to their roots went into the sewer).

What if Midge is already in the developing shoots? What would be the best thing to do then?

Good question. I guess pruning off new growth? Anyone?

I did not have a midge problem among my thousand roses (before retirement downsizing). If I did I would not have tried a synthetic poison. I would have tried to strengthen the rose immune system by adding H2O2 or aspirin or one of the commercial harpin type products. I also could of tried adding a silicate to discourage the midge. Another possible approach is:

Biological Control

Minute pirate bugs, Orius spp. and other bugs have been observed feeding on apple leaf midge larvae in our area. In Eastern Canada, the introduced European parasitoid Platygaster demades has been shown to effectively reduce (40-90%) the first generation leaf curling midges. This parasitoid is being considered for importation into the Pacific Northwest.

http://jenny.tfrec.wsu.edu/opm/displaySpecies.php?pn=645

About rinsing the roots of in the sink, I’m worried about clogging my sink. I’m considering cutting back two large roses that are in huge resin half barrels. They probably have perlite, moisture crystals, and who knows what else clinging to their roots. I’m thinking the only option is to use a bucket. I’m just unsure about what to soak the roots in and how to safely dispose of what’s left in the bucket. I suppose I could pour the liquid off and bag up what’s left on the bottom of the bucket. If there’s chemical in the water, I’m not sure what to do with it. I only want to do this ONCE, if it becomes necessary. It’s already more work than I’m up to. Thanks for any help. Lisa

Henry, I think the silicate products are a real possibility and have other benefits as well. However, as much as I'm all about upping a plants immune response, I don't know how that would help if the midge larvae suck everything out of the developing shoot. My experience has shown that disrupting the life-cycle is key, either preventing them from landing to pupate in the soil or from emerging (landscape fabric) or preventing them from being deposited in the first place (Protek et al). I would love to know if anyone has tried silica or something else that might strengthen the cell walls.

vaporvac it is my understanding that rose midge is not new. If correct, I assume that roses have had plenty of time to develop defenses against them. Regarding your comment that midge is a sucking feeder. Here is how the immune system acts towards aphids - another sucking insect.

"Author: MILES P W
Author Address: WAITE AGRIC. RES. INST., UNIV. ADELAIDE, ADELAIDE, S. AUST.
Title: DYNAMIC ASPECTS OF THE CHEMICAL RELATION BETWEEN THE ROSE APHID MACROSIPHUM-ROSAE AND ROSE BUDS
Published in: Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, volumn 37, pages 129-136, (1985).
Abstract: "Dynamic aspects of the chemical relation between the rose aphid [Macrosiphum rosae] and rose buds.In warm weather, M. rosae (L.) walks off buds of hybrid tea roses during a critical period coinciding with the opening of the sepals. This behavior could not be related to histologically detectable barriers to feeding, nor to changes in the water content of the tissues or in their composition with respect to total soluble carbohydrate, amino nitrogen or phenolic compounds; major changes in tissue chemistry, effected by spraying the bushes with urea, did not affect the time at which the aphids left the buds. Tissue sap expressed from stems and sepals showed a significant increase in catechin content after, rather than during, the critical period. Once expressed, however, sap from buds at the critical stage showed a sharp in vitro rise in catechin content over a few hours, up to levels approximating those against which the insects discriminated in choice tests. The insects could well be sensitive to a developing capacity of tissue to accumulated catechin, possibly in response to their feeding activity."

Here is a link that might be useful: link for Miles' abstract above

Here is a general plant immune system article:

http://bulbnrose.x10.mx/Heredity/King/PlantImmune.html

Thank you, Henry. What would help increase catechin content? I could see that as another means of disrupting the life-cyle as the midge would try to find someplace else, if this worked for midge.

I am not aware of a lot of research on the catechin pathway.

Here is one study in how it protects strawberries from fungus attack:

". We report here that (+)-catechin produced in strawberry leaves acts as a protective agent for fungal infection; that is, as an infection inhibiting factor (IIF)"

https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/pdf/10.1094/PHYTO.2000.90.6.595

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General Google Scholar search:

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&newwindow=1&source=hp&ei=uODLWoruN4TcsAWv34CQCg&q=catechin+plant+pathway&oq=catechin+plant+pathway&gs_l=psy-ab.12..33i160k1.3620.3620.0.7800.3.2.0.0.0.0.139.139.0j1.2.0....0...1.2.64.psy-ab..1.2.251.6..35i39k1.112.eYPPY9pKvkY

Thanks for the suggestions, Henry! And for the thought-provoking questions, Lisa and vaporvac. I just pulled the rose that has been most obviously infected, and the one next to it (which also had some damage, on the side facing the infected rose). I washed their roots as best I could in a bucket, and left the bucket full of water. I'm not totally sure, but guessing that midge larvae probably aren't built to survive total submersion for weeks at a time? When the water dries out, I'll bag the mud and dispose of it. I also gave the roses a really harsh pruning, then potted them up. Hopefully they will survive! Then I removed the top couple inches of soil in the area immediately surrounding the affected plants and bagged it in plastic garbage bags. I wonder if I just left it bagged up for a really long time, if that would be enough to kill off any midge larvae?

Henry, I found a site that sells Orius insidious, but have not yet found a supplier for Orius spp. The roses around the affected plants have just now been watered with aspirin, and I am also looking into silicate -- I am assuming you were thinking of using a foliar spray? I see that people also water with it -- do you know if it matters which way I apply it?

Thanks so much everyone for your ideas!

I personally would be afraid of using silicate as a spray without full lung protection.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/silicon-induced-resistance-against-powdery-mildew-of-roses-caused-dsvw-vd~1586199

That is a good point, which should have been obvious to me. Silicosis is not something I want to have to deal with!

I think Pro Tekt is a sort of silicon like product that's safe to apply.