Lilly beetles

ggggrrrrhhhhh!!!!!!
Cheeky little critters where even copulating in front of me
I've removed said pot to the , needs attending to corner. Apart from squishing, or spraying, I guess I'm losing the battle?

 

A friend of mine once said, respecting David Attenboroughs TV programs. I don't watch them. They are all about hunting, killing and sex.

So. I hunt the supermarkets for food. I have killed homebred livestock for the table. SEX! Something from my far distant past rings a bell.

Answeres solutions on a post card please.

 

Yes I caught several ...doing things that I definitely don't want them doing too!!

 

One of the very few things I do spray for......a single spray early last year and same this year means no lily beetle and fine lilies

 

Try to avoid sprays but they are a pain..
What do you use @Verdun please, may have to resort to desperate measures!!

 

Yes I know Upsy ...Chemicals are not great

I used Resolva Bug Killer. One thorough spray ...timed right....works very well. “Timed right”......works effectively on larvae and adults ....means around now or earlier here.

The “organic” squashing alternative is not really effective. ...have you tried to squash them? They are fast to avoid you and once they drop onto the ground they are impossible to see. Also what we see is just the tip of the iceberg so the damage continues. So this is not the answer. Many simply stop growing them but what a shame! I grow lots of them

Interestingly though in some parts of the garden, where the soil is poor and pretty hot, I am not bothered by lily beetle at all

If there is an organic...effective organic....spray maybe someone on the forum can name it

 

Squished my first one tonight I had moved the original problem pot away from my favourite lillies. However, one found its way, to my favs
,I hate squishing but I love my lillies
What even eats these?
I’m guessing they are a bug new to these shores?

 

They've been around for donkeys years! If you have Fritillaries they usually start the year on those. I've actually had two off of my Alliums this year!!
The main reason that I wage war on them though is that they love Tricyrtis. Anything that threatens my Toad Lilies is doomed.

 

Yes @Verdun , I'm afraid I'm a squasher alright!!
I have my little pot and a small paint brush, holding the pot underneath the leaf and then brushing the culprit into the pot. I caught quite a few yesterday,but sadly one little ****** got away! It's now top of my hit list....I have it's mug shot poster all around my garden, so there will be no chance of mistaken identity!!

As you say though they are just the tip of the iceberg and despite my vigilante patrols we always end the season with bare stalks

 

This is a first for me - I found one on an Alstroemeria at the weekend. A rare Alstro at that!

 

Lily beetles will attack several other plants but I think the source of them will be lilies So control on lilies will, hopefully, safeguard the rest

 

Frits I reckon. They're easily the first to emerge here and the red devils are about long before any of my Lilies poke their heads out. Like I said, they're doomed 'cos they like my Tricyrtis too much.

 

Out of interest, do they bother Callas?

 

Lily Beetle. - Liloceris lilii. If you haven't yet seen one. Don't worry, if one or more visit your garden, you will readily identify the scarlet invader. It may be that at first you don't see him/her but if in the vicinity of your prized lillies then soon you will observe discusting waste deposits on the leaves, perhaps before any actual damage has been caused. Makes you shudder at times. In reallity the egg is deposited and then in no other words applicable it is engulfed in beetle poo (crap). Poor sad Junior, what a way to enter the world. Perhaps there is some motto. If the poo don't get you. then finger and thumb will.

I have over the years had many lillies ruined by the scarlet invader. No, I have never shown any plants but at the end of the day, if you have perhaps lashed out and paid a high price for a bulb, only to have the plant ruined, words may be un-printable.

It can be difficult to distinguish at times, what has been biting chuncks out of the leaves, unless you actually catch the culprit in the act. I therefore see no reason why the lily beetle wouldn't dine on other similar fleshy type foliage, but having said that. My limited studies have only ever identified the genus lilium/etc as being a suitable birthing/nursery place. Some twelve years ago, we had a winters fall of snow, and exiting the greenhouse this bright scarlet critter was highlighted on one of my rhododendrons. I speedily related the last rights and bought to an end his/her winter sufferrings.