Who’s this little blighter??

Allyblueeyes

Afternoon everyone.  This little pest is completely demolishing the leaves on my roses.  Can anyone identify it, and hopefully recommend a way of getting rid of it?  Thank you in advance. 

wild edges

It looks like a rose sawfly larvae. Pick them off and put them on the bird table if you have one.

Allyblueeyes

Thank you @wild edges I have several bird feeders/tables so that’s where they’ll be going.  I also have several roses all suffering so I may be in the garden sometime!  Is there anything that I can spray on them that isn’t harmful to other wildlife? 

josusa47

No.  If it poisons the insect, it will poison whatever eats the insect.  Can't you leave it be?  Summer's at an end, caterpillars will soon be pupating, and roses will be shedding what's left of their leaves.  If we kill off all the leaf-eating larvae, there will be no flying insects to pollinate our flowers and farm crops.  This has been an exceptional summer for butterflies, maybe because more of us are tolerant of caterpillars.

Allyblueeyes

Fair enough and good point @josusa47. Does it actually do the roses themselves any harm? 

Obelixx

Leaves are a plant's food factory so anything that affects leaves affects the health of the plant.

I wouldn't spray either but I would transfer a heavy infestation to a bird table or else put the bird table nearer the roses so the birds spot these juicy morsels for themselves.  I've done that with my new roses this year and it's worked very well.

Giving the roses a good mulch of well-rotted garden compost this autum and then well-rotted manure next spring will help improve the soil texture and fertility at their roots and make stronger plants that can better survive such attacks. 

Allyblueeyes

Thank you @Obelixx I will certainly do that.  👍🏻