What Is Eating My Roses?

Secret2ndAccount

Hi, I have half a dozen rose plants - all identical clones from a single parent. They are all getting nibbled to an extent, but it's manageable:

Except for one plant which is being eaten bare:

Every time it grows new leaves they are immediately eaten again. I have a number of questions:
⁜ Is it possible to identify the culprit from my photos?
⁜ Why is this plant being attacked in preference to its identical siblings? I've tried moving it, but nothing changed. Is it possible the attacker is living in the pot?
⁜ What can I do to protect this plant and the others?
⁜ Is there anything I can do to provide for my poor plant while it tries to regrow its leaves?

Thanks for your help

Brie

I would certainly try emptying out the soil and disposing of it on the chance that that's where the culprit is living.  I had to do similar because of ants infesting a planter and killing anything at all I used it for.  (no roses involved)

twopenny

Could be Sheild bugs. It looks like it. They normally don't do much harm apart from appearance of the plant.

Your baby in the pot you could tie garden fleece over it loosely and let it grow some leaves to sustain it over winter and just give it a break. Feed it with something quick like Phostrogen (powder in water) which will be quick for it to take up.

If you get curling of leaves it could be a caterpillar so look for them. I've just found some having a go at my young apricot tree.

Brie

Wondering how you know for sure they are clones.  Any chance that this one is from the original root stock so just that little bit tastier to the bugs?

Secret2ndAccount

The original plant is over 30 years old. I don't even know if it's a grafted rose or not. All the cuttings were taken from 6ft off the ground, so I'm pretty sure there's only one set of genes in there.

alicef

I wonder if the damage is being done by weevils. They can strip leaves back to the midrib.