Red lily beetles

pandora205

I've never heard of these before but I've just seen lots! My lovely Stargazer lilies nurtured from last year and thriving nicely with some new compost are being decimated by them. Any advice please?

I'm going to see what sprays I have as I'm not necessarily wedded to organic methods of control.

Thanks

I_have_spoken

Provado Ultimate Bug Killer plus squishing any you can catch

Barneysmom

I bought spray in the end, my lilies were destroyed by them.
The squash them to death idea works quite well too

ljonski

kill,kill, kill, kill - And i,m generally a pacifist!

pandora205

I could only find Rose Clear in my shed so I'll have to get something. I've killed the ones I found but they must have laid eggs... Hope I can save the plants as I have a lot!

REEN

The sneaky little beggars drop off the lily when disturbed and land on their backs so they are camouflaged on the soil. Put something underneath before you go after them, catch and squish.

suziemoon

Spray doesn't work. The ONLY way to get rid is to kill them, I stand and crush them my Mother in Law drowns them in a jar of water.... either way the bright red beetles need to be killed....

elsien

I must have slow reactions - they tend to drop before I can get them, then I can never see where the beggars have got to.
Do they go for canna lilies as well? Just planted one to replace the stargazers.

pandora205

Off to look again as they could have dropped off when I was doing my rounds - and I'll try putting something under this time

malebolge

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Provado Ultimate Bug Killer plus squishing any you can catch

I've found this to work very well. The provado makes the lilies taste nasty to the beetles so they don't eat them. You do need to re-spray every 6 weeks but it's worth it for a good display. I use it when the lilies first start to appear so the tops aren't eaten off, then spray at 6 week intervals till they've finished and die back. I hate these little red devils; a pest only surpassed in evilness by the dreaded vine weevil grubs.

Sylvia1982

malebolge wrote: »

I've found this to work very well. The provado makes the lilies taste nasty to the beetles so they don't eat them. You do need to re-spray every 6 weeks but it's worth it for a good display. I use it when the lilies first start to appear so the tops aren't eaten off, then spray at 6 week intervals till they've finished and die back. I hate these little red devils; a pest only surpassed in evilness by the dreaded vine weevil grubs.

I also agree, I hate using sprays but two weeks ago I gave up and used this product. My lilies are now in flower and i have not seen any lily beetles since they were sprayed (fingers cross it stays that way)