>>>I've seen some activity from those little green caterpillars that eat little windows into the leaves. There are 3 Gruss an Aachen in that area, and the caterpillars are focused on one plant. It reminded me of a public television documentary I saw about how plants communicate with each other. One segment talked about one plant of a group being attacked by insects and it released a chemical that when detected by the surrounding plants, triggered them to produce chemicals that made them less attractive to the insects. The original plant did not have its immune response kick in- they theorized that it was sacrificing itself to give the others a fighting chance.
How interesting ....
Yes, those little green windows are indicators of saw fly damage.
I don't mind washing plants down with water for insect control, but more than that is just something I am not going to do. Over my rose life, so many "safe" chemicals have been re-labeled as "dangerous" and then removed from the market because they have been determined to be more than just "dangerous" but are now "lethal", I've decided that I am simply NOT going to bother messing with Mother Nature beyond the minimum of removing buds, washing plants or companion planting. The rest is up to Her.
Ooops ... forgot a quote
