Aphids do not do much damage here so I don't worry about them. But you can spray them with cool water from your hose from time to time to dislodge them...

Yes, get after them with a sharp spray of plain water to knock them away. You'll need to do that frequently, but it should keep them at a level you and your roses can tolerate. Don't wait until they "come back with a vengeance"......spray them down much more frequently than that.

blast them with the hose or just squish them with your fingers. I just blasted a bunch of spittle bugs off my roses.

I gently wipe them off with my fingers. Then use the hose with a hard spray of water to get any I missed. They're pretty harmless and not worth getting out insecticide that can kill the good bugs.

Luckily a few years ago, I was distracted with other chores in the garden and put off doing anything about an infestation of aphids I saw on a rose. Two weeks later, I had not given it another thought and I was walking by the rose and lo and behold not only were there no aphids on the plant, but there were lady bugs!

This year, i've had some thrips and aphids and I did some research by reading posts on the GW Rose forum and ran across a thread where lady bugs were discussed as a solution for thrips too. So again, I did nothing and again, I walked by the plant and saw lady bugs again. The plant had already suffered some early damage, but not anything that concerned me. Some leaves that need pruning off and a small amount of buds that I can deadhead, but the foliage is full, healthy looking, and flowers are blooming all over the rose.

In a way, I see the aphids as an attractant for lady bugs and I try my best, not to intervene and trust that the natural ecosystem is going to manage pretty well without me. I do step in and reduce overwhelming numbers of destructive bugs by hand picking if a plant is being heavily damaged, but that's about it. And that is just in the case of Red Lily Leaf Beetles that don't have any natural predators in this area.

Of course, that takes patience to allow the checks and balances to develop in your garden and refraining from using chemicals. I'm just speaking from personal experience and I only have a few roses in my garden. I've been gardening organically for a long time and every year it gets better. Still there are problems in every garden that seem to have no solution. We have winter moths here that do a lot of damage to trees and shrubs in the spring, and that is another bug that has no natural predator here. And there's little I can do about that.

This post was edited by prairiemoon2 on Sun, Jun 15, 14 at 20:49

See the following thread:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/roses/msg061127421376.html

Here is a link that might be useful: link to earlier thread

Yes, get after them with a sharp spray of plain water to knock them away. You'll need to do that frequently, but it should keep them at a level you and your roses can tolerate. Don't wait until they "come back with a vengeance"......spray them down much more frequently than that.

Ok so I should spray them off with the water hose and wipe them off with my fingers and let nature takes it's course. My only problem with watering them every day is that I'm not with the these roses during the week, they are at our lake house, that said I will just have to make sure they get sprayed on the weekends and I will wipe off as many as I can and hope lady bugs appear one day. Do you think with my husband spraying for ants that that will keep the lady bugs away? By the way thanks everyone for responding so quickly.

Then, just wash them down on the weekend, and don't worry about it. Really.

After years of not spraying, we've found that aphids are less and less common. When we do see them, we indeed brush them off with fingers, and use the garden hose. You can put your hand behind the bud, and spray HARD. POOF! No aphids.

Back when we used to get more aphids, there was an annual influx of bushtits, who ate them like mad for maybe one day, and disappeared, leaving aphid-free roses. They were a lot of fun to watch.

You MIGHT see if you can order some ladybug LARVAE. Not adults. They just fly away. But the larvae, who look like teeny black and red alligators, will eat aphids greedily. Again -- fun to watch.

Ok that settles it then, I will do what ya'll suggested and not stress out about anymore. Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I will think about ordering lady bug larvae for next spring.

I prefer using ladybugs-- larger nurseries generally carry them and they are refrigerated to avoid them from being overly active in transport. I try not to use insecticidal soaps or home made versions. Why add dyes and colors to the soapy mix-- best to buy the concentrate insecticidal soap bottles and make it yourself! Insecticidal soaps kill all insects (good and bad) by suffocating them.
I'm also leery of using strong streams of water on tender new rose growth, JMO.

Mine virtually disappear as the spring flush opens and with not significant damage. This applies to about 40 years of roses. I suggest that people try doing nothing and see what happens. (No harm in spritzing or wiping if you want to take the trouble.)

Embrace the bugs...let nature take it's course. If you have aphids then it's a good sign your garden is alive..and the lady bugs will show up.