Topic: First found and not happy.

[landimad]

Yesterday, I have found the first of what I can only say is not good news for us in our garden. The dreaded LILY BEETLE  :o has been lurking in the pots around my lillies and has been removed to a place which will be under my boot.
The little blighters are about and I suspect they wont be the last. :(

[shirlton]

Strange you should say that cos I saw one last Wednesday when I was weeding the shrubs in the front garden. It was amongst the lily of the valley. Do they attack those as well cos I don't have any other lilies in there?

[saddad]

Snap, I caught one last week too, it got the order of the boot. Haven't seen any on the snakes head Fritts though, which is where I normally see the earliest ones. Have you got any fritallaria?  :-\

[shirlton]

No just a mass of Lily of the valley and shrubs

[saddad]

Hmm... never seen any on my Lilly of the Valley, but never looked... I'll have to check. :-X

[raisedbedted]

Me too, found about a dozen on my emerging summer lilies and then a further 6 on my snakesheads.  They always seem to drop into the crevices in the lilies where only tweezers can get, little blighters.

[shirlton]

I do have some solomons seal. Could it be that they are after that.I do know that something eats it every year. I will be on patrol now to catch the culprits ;D

[saddad]

That's sawfly Shirl....  :)

[shirlton]

Will try the rhubarb leaves under them as we do with the gooseberry. Thanks Saddad

[Dandytown]

I stopped growing lillies as I didnt have the heart to squash the little beetles as they are rather pretty.

Do they attack anything else?

I am going for prevention rather than cure this year by netting as much as possible

[Morris]

Oh, I have these too. Saw the first two summers ago, and last year they were terrible. I do squash them otherwise they eat the entire lily and it is ruined, but it is utterly disgusting to do it.  You need to look out for the larvae which do the most damage - but they hide in clumps of their own poo, which is brown/black, stinky, sticky and absolutely revolting. It's good that you've found an adult now because you can hopefully break/reduce the cycle.

I used to have lots of lilies but their vigour is declining because of the beetle and I'm not going to replant.

[pumkinlover]

I'm looking but not seen yet- mind you I think weather affects them- they seem to come out more on a nice day ???

[landimad]

Seems as though I have started something!  :-X
I hope that they do not take hold and decimate the lillies this year.
I found mine in the Delphiniums at the bottom of the pot.
But they are gone now, I shall have to look in my other pots to see if they are in them too.