red lily beetle

[taff..]

in case you haven't seen these little blighters before..

and what they do to lilys

I tried picking adults off earlier in the year but a. remembering to do it and b. actually having time to do it both seem to be a problem that has resulted in both of lily pots looking like the second photo.

has anyone dealt with these things before? how did you do it? I don't want my pots looking like that again next year

 

[enrico]

Picking them off is the only way. Sorry!

 

[Luminos]

We get those, too, and also Onion Beetle, which is virtually identical and does the same sort of damage but to the Allium family

 

[susbees]

And Japanese beetles, which are around here apparently and fond of skeletonising various things too. Perhaps insect burgers is the answer...

 

[taff..]

I was affraid that picking would be the only way

I might go and cut the lily's right down to ground level thus taking away their food, bag up all the beetles that I can find, go through the first inch or so of soil and hope for the best.

 

[Brosville]

I seem to remember Alan Titchmarsh describing simple homemade "traps" (it was either him, or the RHS)

 

[Luminos]

What, like a tiny mousetrap

 

[taff..]

I seem to remember Alan Titchmarsh describing simple homemade "traps" (it was either him, or the RHS)

I looked on the RHS website yesterday but didn't see anything about any traps. I did fill in their red lily beetle survey while I was there though

 

[Brosville]

From memory it involved corrugated cardboard which they crawl into, which could then be removed and destroyed.......

 

[Brosville]

There are also several other methods - sprinkle diatomaceous earth round the plants, use neem oil, or I have heard of people using WD40.........

 

[taff..]

There are also several other methods - sprinkle diatomaceous earth round the plants, use neem oil, or I have heard of people using WD40.........

I've never heard of Diatomaceous earth before, having just googled it, it looks like just the stuff for the job and for a fiver a tub it has to be worth a go.

thanks

 

[Luminos]

For diatomaceous earth to work (it dessicates them), they would have to get it on them, i.e, crawl through it. Lily beetles fly. I don't think many will be targeted by this method.

 

[Brosville]

There's a touch more to it than that - "DE is almost pure silica (with some beneficial trace minerals); under a microscope, it looks like shards of glass (glass is made from silica). On any beetle-type insect that has a carapace, like fleas and cockroaches, the DE works under the shell and punctures the body, which then dehydrates and the insect dies."

 

[Luminos]

Fair enough
But my point is, is still has to come into contact with the insect to be effective

 

[Sean.]

I did a few things;

Pulled them off, killed the grubs which are at the ends of the leaves which they are eating - look for a blob of green mush
I also sprayed with some soapy water with tea tree oil in this. Other times sprayed with the hose pip on a pressure setting with the plant at an angle to wash the dam things off!
Removed the eggs from under the leaves, which are orange and look like rice grains in a line.

Hope this helps

 

[midlandgardencare]

The best way is provado ultimate bug killer, as a gardener with over 20 gardens on my rounds I'm not able to dedicate the time to individually picking off insects I have to rely on companion planting, traps and chemicals. I'm not sure if provado affects bees as its a systemic pesticide, I use it on dahlias for greenfly and blackfly, Lilly's for Lilly beetles I also use it on some veggies but I pref not to.

http://www.bayergarden.co.uk/en/data/Products/p/Provado-Ultimate-Bug-Killer-Ready-to-Use.aspx

 

[Brosville]

Provado (much plugged on Radio Sussex by the Sun's gardening "expert" Steve Bradley - how has he got away with it?) is a neonicotinoid, which you should probably know by now is not "flavour of the month" amongst most beekeepers.
I would deem it's use on ornamentals at the very least as reckless, and on vegetables.....(best not to go there, my language may get unprintable).....

Here's a little something on the subject - http://www.soilassociation.org/wildlife/bees/householdpesticides - from which "If you're buying any kind of pest control check the ingredients – anything that contains acetamiprid, imidacloprid, thiacloprid or thiamethoxam should be avoided. On the back of our research we've also written to retailers, asking them to withdraw this type of pesticide from their shelves" - thankfully, many major retailers are complying with this request

 

[Skyhook]

The best way is provado ultimate bug killer, as a gardener with over 20 gardens on my rounds I'm not able to dedicate the time to individually picking off insects I have to rely on companion planting, traps and chemicals. I'm not sure if provado affects bees as its a systemic pesticide, I use it on dahlias for greenfly and blackfly, Lilly's for Lilly beetles I also use it on some veggies but I pref not to.

http://www.bayergarden.co.uk/en/data/Products/p/Provado-Ultimate-Bug-Killer-Ready-to-Use.aspx

Ultimate bug killer is Thiacloprid, a neonicotinoid. Browsing through the forum, you may find that your post is not the best way to make friends on here. Thiacloprid is very systemic and will turn up in the nectar and pollen of the plants it is used on and be taken by bees and other pollinating insects, in doses the effects of which are currently the subject of major debate.

When you say it is the best treatment, it is probably the most effective- but that's not always the same thing.

.

 

[midlandgardencare]

As a professional gardener it is quite hard to avoid pesticides unless you have masses of time to dedicate to the gardens you work in. When these 'experts' come up with a bee safe pesticide that works as well as provado then I'll switch to it. By the way I'm not one of these with a knapsack and spray a whole garden just in case I spray individual plants if they are showing signs of pests. I've just taken on a 40 foot by 50 foot allotment inside a Victorian walled garden that is a solid mass of couch grass (I filled 2 bin bags from a 6x1 foot row) and its an organic site so I can't kill it off with weed killer and when I eventually plant it up I'm not allowed to use pesticides.

 

[Brosville]

"When these 'experts' come up with a bee safe pesticide that works as well as provado then I'll switch to it" - if that's your stance, then you must accept the damage the stuff does, and would suggest that it would be responsible to do a lot of reading on the subject in the hope that you would at the least minimise your use of it, and avoid it wherever possible - from my point of view, there is no excuse for using it at all, organic gardeners manage without it - it may take a little more effort to use something like diatomaceous earth or to use traps, but well worth the small extra effort, not least for our pollinating insects.