These guys ate the leaves off the roses in the back yard

I'm a preschool teacher and the book by Eric Carl The Hungry Little Caterpillar is coming to mind... Good luck with those. :)

Thanks.. last season was a rough one. Between mystery snackers on the clematis, stealth caterpillars that were almost invisible even right on the leaves, and the bunnies consuming my pansies and other favourites in the front garden.. last year was pretty heartbreaking.
I'm hoping the pests won't be as abundant this year. We'll see!

Hi...looks like you have sawfly larvae... there are numerous types aparently...I have pics of the ones that tried to eat my roses too... and they are nearly identical. I have an Explorer Rose David Thompson...they especially like that...Also had these things on a Mugho Pine...I just went over the shrub with a finetooth comb... squished anything that moved...then I suds the plant down and followed up with a stiff spray from the hose... it worked. Google sawfly for the lowdown... good luck.

I spent hours combing over the roses and picking off those guys then feeding them to the birds.. the robins would wait on the fence, and as soon as we backed away from the glass container they'd swoop down and feast.
Thanks - I'll keep a closer eye out for these things this year and will try the soap and spray thing.

It's been a tough spring all the way around, aye? The robins know a quality restaurant when they find one...lol. I don't like pesticides and you can probably tell by my obvious bias in favour of true organic methods.

I'm not a big fan of chemicals either.. we're very new to gardening and we didn't have a good start. Last year there were pests, mildews, molds and rots. The crabgrass was ripped out by hand over the fall and I think we got all of it, so now we'll keep pulling it by hand. Same with the dandelions. The creeping charlie has been taking over a massive part of the front lawn since before we moved in, so unfortunately we had to do a a little spraying. Hopefully it will be the first and last time. I'd rather have another flower bed than have to fight that weed.

I have Creeping Charlie everywhere! it especially likes my flower beds and it grows large and lovely... lol. thankfully it's not hard to get a good handfull to pull...I rather like the smell of it when I cut the lawn (green stuff). I don't weed the green areas either...i just keep it cut to a low level so nothing can go to seed... crab grass is an annual...so the plants die off but leave amazing amounts of seed behind.. I just cut it...and add a little of the regular grass seed when it dies back in fall and again in spring..