The More Rural You Get, The More You Must Worry About The Larger Sized Rose Pests: They Eat Roses!
by Bob Bauer
Nothing can decimate a rose garden faster that a couple of hungry invading deer. They love to eat roses, and it doesn't seem that the prickles stop them from munching away. There are a few effective things that you might be able to do to stop them from coming on your property. The most effective is an electified fence that is high enough so they cannot jump over it (about 7 feet). This 'fence' consists of at least 4 parallel horizontal wires spaced 16 to 20 inches apart and stringing all the way around your property. The more wires, the better the security. Electrified fence transformers can be purchased from any farm products retailer. They use DC current and so are harmless to people and pests, but they do give enough of a shock to make you not want to touch them. You only will have to keep it turned on when you realize that deer are in the area. Make sure that you put a sufficient number of signs on the fence warning people that it is electrified. Another deer deterrent method is to put grid fencing on the ground around the roses and grow low growing plants up through it. Deer hate to walk on this unsure footing surface, and cannot get close enough to the roses to eat them. Dogs can also keep deer out of the area. Winter and early spring will be the times when the deer are most in need of food and more likely to be invading residential areas.
Rose Problems Page
Cute though they may be, they can be devastating to your garden. Live traps might be the best control method here. It takes a bit of effort to trap and then release them in the woods somewhere else, but once removed from the area, they are gone. Another method that organic gardeners use is to just grow a small patch of their favorite foods like lettuce and let them go eat that. If they have a choice, they will not eat the roses. But it is winter when rabbits do the most damage, so other means are sometimes necessary. Outdoor cats can keep rabbits out of the area. And putting chicken wire fences around the roses in winter can also do the trick. Winter and early spring are the times when the bunnies will most likely be interested in eating your roses, since they are hardier than most plants and will tend to have green leaves on them longer. The bunny fence however has to go at least 6 inches underground as well for it to be effective, since those bunnies can really dig.
'Melody Parfume'
This is not the biggest problem in the world, but a bad infestation can create problems in the garden. Gophers, moles and voles can attack your roses from underground by eating their roots. Also Gophers and moles will burrow around underneath your soil and can occasionally uproot your bushes. Seeing the characteristic little hills in the form of a line will alert you to the presence of these critters. You can just step on these hills and close the entrances with your foot if you find them. Voles and field mice don't dig their own burrows, but live in abandoned gopher and mole burrows. They also eat the above ground parts of the plant. A couple of outdoor cats are really the ticket to controlling these pests. Bait and live traps don't seem to work that well from what I have seen of people talking about this subject, but others seem to think that your regular old mouse or rat trap will work wonders. If the problem is very severe, a local exterminator may need to be called.
'Montezuma'
A dog or pair of dogs can wreak havoc on any garden. The main problem dogs cause is digging. They might 'accidentally' dig up that new bare root rose you planted yesterday, because it smells interesting, and has bone meal in the hole for example. Another problem with dogs is urination. They will want to mark the same spots over and over again, and sometimes those spots are your favorite rose bushes. This can outright kill many plants including roses. The third problem is trampling. An active dog can flatten a small garden in a short time, before it has had time to get big enough to withstand the onslaught. We know you can't get rid of Fido, so the best thing to do is limit his access to certain parts of the garden. Fences may be necessary. If your dog is a house dog, try to allow her out only when you are out with her. Give the dog its own 'run' or territory. Make a pet 'sacrifice' area that has hardier quick growing plants and shrubs.