What are these little critters?

Painkiller

I've spotted a few of these bugs in the garden - from a distance they looked like ladybirds but the have no spots and are more elongated. They fly like ladybirds & have a similar hard shell which their wings are tucked under.

valentina

They are lily beetles

madame_cholet

They are lily beetles - I bet you have lilies in your garden! They are horrible things when they get going - they eat lily leaves and leave a nasty deposit behind that looks like black bogeys. They need killing but they move fast. The best way is just to pinch them off (use gloves if you're squeamish) and drop them on the patio and stamp on them!

Painkiller

Do i feed them to my venus flytrap collection or will the beetles eat them?

The plant they were on probably grew from a lily bulb I randomly chucked into the flower bed last year - the leaves are riddled with holes now

brogusblue

Yuk yuk .. I have these too .. I have said in a few post reguarding these, I have a jam jar of death .. Washing up liq, bleach and water then i pick them off and drop them in there ..

There is loads about this year i have a few lilles in my garden and i have catching them now for the last 4/5 weeks ..

mrbadexample

Painkiller wrote: »

Do i feed them to my venus flytrap collection or will the beetles eat them?

Try one if you've a spare plant with a nice big trap. I think they might be tough enough to get out.

And if you've time, I'd like to see a photo of the VFTs please. Mine suffered awfully over the winter, but some are trying to make a comeback.

TravellingAbuela

Yuk! I have lots of tubs of lilies but have never been troubled by these things. Am I just lucky? Looks like I have another job now - searching my lilies to see if any are lurking amongst the foliage! Not noticed so far that the leaves are getting eaten so maybe I have escaped this far. Thanks for the warning.

Kaoslisa

I squashed two today First two I've ever seen on my lilies and hopefully the last two..

gairlochgal

My 9 yr old is an expert on lily beetles - hold them to your ear and you'll hear what a racket they can make. She says the way to get rid of a lily beetle is to pick it up and scare it a bit and it will fly off to your neighbour's garden and never come back

forgotmyname

Spotted 1 of these in the garden today, I was going to take a picture but forgot.

I dont have any lillies, It was on a strawberry plant in a hanging basket.

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine

gairlochgal wrote: »

My 9 yr old is an expert on lily beetles - hold them to your ear and you'll hear what a racket they can make. She says the way to get rid of a lily beetle is to pick it up and scare it a bit and it will fly off to your neighbour's garden and never come back

Hehehe, sweet kid, that sounds a MUCH nicer way to get rid of them! Squishing random little creatures that are just getting on with their normal day to day business, even if they ARE eating your plants (as if they'd have any way of telling), has always seemed a bit brutal to me! :rotfl: