My daughter took this photo of whatever is having a feast on my Knockouts. If you double click on the photo it will get huge and you can see quite a bit of detail. The closest thing I can find is mealybug. I'm sure you rose experts can pinpoint it for me and I will be forever grateful.

Yes, I have not been here for several years and I've missed my gardening friends (Hi Zuzu and CalifSue!). Long story short --- medical problems. My daughter has moved in with me and it is a real blessing. We are trying to get to garden up and running again ... well, she is. I can't do it any more. She went out to deadhead the roses and found these little critters. Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated.

I believe it's a cottony cushion scale bug. And they will devour rose bushes if not handled....

Fortunately, it's just the shed exoskeleton of an aphid that has molted. If it were scale, you'd have a much more serious problem.

So sorry to hear about the medical problems, Judy. Also sorry about the rose problem, but it sounds as if it's temporary. Besides, it wasn't all bad: It brought you back to our forum.

Thanks, Zuzu. I've missed you guys. And, Mike, if it's an exoskeleton, the aphid's still in there, It walks! Most I've asked say it's wooly aphids but my daughter disagrees and says it's some type of moth. It has wings. I've ordered some Bayer systemic granules. Hope that will get whatever it is. These are the Knockouts I planted when I was sort of a regular on DG. They've done well until just recently. The only other roses hanging on are the baby blanket groundcover roses I got from J&P back in 2008. These white things are feasting on those too so I need to do something. By the way, I read where Paul Zimmermann is a consultant for J&P. That can only be an improvement. All the beautiful antique roses I got from him when he closed his place are now deceased, thanks to my neglect. I hate that but it couldn't be helped. I'll be peeking in here occasionally. And thanks for all your help.

I think your daughter is correct and I stand corrected; it does indeed appear to be a wooly aphid.