Hi Swontgirl:

Wow, this is the thread that will not die (started in 2005) much like lily beetles.

Neem oil is a plant extract. It is NOT a pesticide. The product was originally used for making your houseplant leaves nice and shiny (sort of like an Armour All for plants). It can help with some bug problems as it can suffocate small bugs and insect eggs. But again it is NOT a pesticide and after many years of experimentation I can tell tell you it NOT a great option for bug control. (Big sigh) I wish it was. I have yet to see a single organic product that actually works (even bigger sigh) decently to kill bugs. I am sure several will challenge me on this and I welcome them to come to my gardens and prove the worth of whatever method / product they are using. No flaming though as I don't use chemical pesticides. I started my green / environmental phase back in the 60's when I was in hippie movement and so had a head start on the vast majority of people here in America. Just stating the 'organic' method of pesticide control has a long way to go before it lives up to the lofty claims people already make.

Cheers,
MG

Here is a link that might be useful: Our website

The little red lily beatles showed up in my garden last spring, I had never seen nor heard of them before. They completely destroyed my lilies last summer. This year I have been doing some research on them and have found that if you pick them off and squish them and then aply a mixture of neem oil , dish detergent in warm water, shaken well that should keep them off ,so far this seems to be working I have not seen a beatle in days. The Neem oil can be found in most Indian food grocery stores.

swontgirl - I have a photo of the red lily beetle on my blog.

Here is a link that might be useful: red lily beetle photo

Picking and squishing

picking and squishing
picking and squishing

Thanks Craftygardener,
I have never seen those beetles around here. Hopefully I never will but now I know what to look for.

Mystery gardener said:
Neem oil is a plant extract. It is NOT a pesticide

The fact that it is a plant extract has nothing to do with it being a pesticide.

If you use it to spray for bugs - it is a pesticide. This is true by simple definition, but also by the official Ontario definition of a pesticide.

Sorry to be contraversial, but the derivation of the word pesticide means "to kill". If you spray some product to kill a "pest" and it doesn't kill it, then it cannot be a "pesticde" (at least not for that particular pest).

Waverley, NS here (just outside of Halifax)... I became obsessed with squishing last summer when my lily garden came under siege and was almost decimated. It is now May 21st, 2009 and the lilies are coming up again. So far, no sign of the little red buggers. Canadian Tire sells a product called Green Earth Neem Foliar Leaf Spray, product #59-3838-2. I'm going to pick up a bottle, just in case, and may make an offensive strike this weekend, just in case.

Hmm. ..
In my garden I found 2 of those red beetles. I squished 'em good. I have potted lilies that are about 80ft from the garden lilies. I haven't seen the beetles there yet. Every couple of days I go hunting for the little buggers.
THanks for the tip Jetjock. I will have to go searching for that spray tonight. Only wish it would work on deer as well! ;>

Don't get rid of your lillies. I have come up with a good solution to get rid of the beetles, that won't cost the earth.
I went out last Sat. to buy the spray. I noticed on the 1 that 1 ingredient was cooking oil, on the other was soap.
I went to the grocery store and bought veg. cooking oil and
I use Sunlight dish soap. Erwigs do not like Sunlight soap, so I thought why not mix up some cooking oil with my sunlight and spray my plants. It works. I use.
1 cup cooking oil, 1/2 cup sunlight dish soap put in 1 liter
spray bottle fill with water. Shake well and spray all those bugs on your lillies. Within 2 sec. the big beetles were dead. it will also kill the lauva I'm keeping an eye on the eggs to see if it kills them 2. Also I have been spraying the ground around all my lily plants.
Try this and see what you think? It works for me.
Good luck with your lillies. I just love mine and refuse to get rid of them.

I grab the adults and drown them in a little container of soap and water. for the larva, I spray them off with a squirt bottle of soap and water.

Noticed not as many of the little buggers, this year

I have been using my method since Sat. Saw a couple
on different plants yesterday. Sprayed them and they died in 2 seconds flat. Today I checked my lillies this morning before work and didn't see any beetle's. Will check again when I get home. Here's hoping that I got rid of my infestion.

Joyce

Posted by joyce51 (My Page) on Thu, Jul 9, 09 at 8:41

Don't get rid of your lillies. I have come up with a good solution to get rid of the beetles, that won't cost the earth.
I went out last Sat. to buy the spray. I noticed on the 1 that 1 ingredient was cooking oil, on the other was soap.
I went to the grocery store and bought veg. cooking oil and
I use Sunlight dish soap. Erwigs do not like Sunlight soap, so I thought why not mix up some cooking oil with my sunlight and spray my plants. It works. I use.
1 cup cooking oil, 1/2 cup sunlight dish soap put in 1 liter
spray bottle fill with water. Shake well and spray all those bugs on your lillies. Within 2 sec. the big beetles were dead. it will also kill the lauva I'm keeping an eye on the eggs to see if it kills them 2. Also I have been spraying the ground around all my lily plants.
Try this and see what you think? It works for me.
Good luck with your lillies. I just love mine and refuse to get rid of them.

Hi Everyone

I too have a have beetle problem I guess I am one of lucky ones because I have just noticed them the other day. I have never had a problem with them although I have only had my garden for the last 5-6 years and this thread was started back in 2005.

I am in Mississauga, Ontario not sure if this a problem everywhere or just pockets of these nasty little pests. I too am going to try the recipe up above and see if that works.

Won't do much for my lilies this year, they have been chewed right up but maybe next year and I will be more vigilant about keeping an eye out for these little suckers right from the get go! :)

I have been fighting the lily beetle battle as well. Picking, squishing, and some insecticidal soap. I as well do not like using chemicals in the garden, I'm so concerned about the bees :(. I'm going to also try the recipe above. Would the soap hurt beez and butterflies I wonder? I haven't seen as many adults this year, but I was relentless when seaking out and distroying the tiny eggs. Slightly off topic, but another lily destroyer I have are SLUGS! They like to hide out in the day lilies and then suck the life out of the asiatic foliage. Someone suggested shallow containers of beer, but it's not that effective. Do egg shells really work? Any suggestions?
Tks
Tammy

Holy Freaking WOW! So I'm a Brownthumbed Photographer and I am trying DESPERATELY to garden (as my inlaws are all pros... *sigh*) and decided to get adventurous this year and plant what I think are asiatics, and some cala lillies...

Well I just had my first cala come up and darned is it gorgeous! HOWEVER right beside it is my asiatic and I noticed this BEAUTIFUL red bug on it only 3 days ago... well didn't I notice the darned thing again but on closer inspection I now have lacy leaves to match. I'm absolutely devastated - but BLISSFUL that I found this thread (As old as it may be)

I don't know if anyone still checks this out but I'm going to go get some neem oil tomorrow with the munchkin and then spray the HECK out of my entire garden.

It just boggles my mind though because I have Tiger Lilies out the whazoo in the very same garden and have never seen this blighters before.

Cross your fingers for me!! I only have the one stalk in this area of the garden and really don't want to lose it!

snowangelchelle:

I don't know if anyone still checks this out but I'm going to go get some neem oil tomorrow with the munchkin and then spray the HECK out of my entire garden.

Please don't do that. By spraying everything, you will kill off a lot of beneficial insects as well. If you do that, then there is nothing at all to stand between the plant eaters and your plants. In the long run, this will cause more problems with pests than you have now. Any insecticide use must be done responsibly. It doesn't matter if you're using DDT or dish soap - use only what you need, where you need it.

Do buy the neem oil, and do spray your asiatic lilies, but that's all you need to do.

Also, your Callas should be safe. While commonly called 'calla lilies', they are not lilies at all and the lily beetles will not eat them.

BP

We put bird houses up in the garden. We also have a large garden that we can till. Tilling the soil seems to help and the birds are doing there share by eating the eggs and any beetles I brush off. With all the rain this year, I haven't seen to many, only one I fed to the birds.

I mix together anti-bacterial dish soap, vinegar and water in a spray bottle. I spray once a week and it kills both the beetle and the larva instantly.

Hello from Digby Nova Scotia May 3, 2011, well I just killed 13 of the bad red bettle today. I actually didn't know what they were but quickly went back out to the garden when I did, killed all the adults I found and actually removed the leaved containing the eggs, scraped around the first 1/2" of soil. I will be checking them several times a day as I have asiatics and love them. This is the first time I have seen these beetles here. Oh and they have also been eating my glads as they emerge up about 6" from the ground, the fresh leaves.

Everyone wants to "squish" the red devil. I had my first infestation here in western Massachusetts in 2009 and battled the sucker for 2 years with hand picking and squishing adults and larvae. I finally realized that squishing may be sending phernomes out to other adults. Now, as a trial in 2011, I capture the adults and put them in soapy water. If anyone has had this experience before, please let me know as I want to know if this method works or I am wasting my time by
not squishing them.

I got these darn things last year and they devestated my lilies -- I have a several different kinds. I have been squishing them for the last week or so but there are lots of them. Read this thread and hit them with a rose and flower insecticidal soap from Safer. Some are dead but you have to get the soap right on them. Just bought a product with diocetimous earth (ok I know that is spelt wrong). And I got some Neem spray. I also mixed up a large yogurt container with dish soap, Mr Clean, Hydrogen Peroxide and rubbing alcohol. Picked them off and dumped them into that mixture and they were dead in under a minute but I don't want to spray that mixture on my plants. I also picked them off and hit them with Windex -- dead in under a minute -- because it has ammonia in it.

Am going to try the recipe above next time at the store to pick up ingredients and try spraying plants with it--I don't really want to spray them with Windex :-)

try making a nicotine tea by brewing cigarettes in hotwater and then use that to spray on these bugs. They will be dead soon

[Originally posted by mystery_gardener on Thu, Apr 16, 09

Wow, this is the thread that will not die (started in 2005) much like lily beetles.]

I can not believe this thread still exists as it is now 2011.

It does have a couple useful tips but this thread could use some editing to par it down to the essentials.

Our spring was the latest I have experienced (tulips and many narcissus are in bloom now, many weeks late) but my lilies are coming on strong now.

Does anyone know the mixture rate for Neem oil? I bought some concentrate this winter but don't know how to mix it up.
Thanks!

the recipe I have is 0ne Ounce of Neem Oil to 1 Litre of warm Water and a few drops of Dish Detergent to act as a surficant to stick to the Leaves.

Thanks Thistle!
I haven't had any beetles here yet but want to be prepared. I have many lilies!

People up here in Maine swear Sevin will work.... tried it, still got bugs. Resorting to old habit of picking and drowining in dishsoap and water... I know that works and will have it still ready when the Japanese beetles come!

Great thred. My girlfriend and I just noticed them on the tiger lil's. I am interested in knowing if the sunlight dish soap and cooking oil mixture worked long term and also curious if it damaged the plants at all. Also, does anypone know where to aquire neem oil in NW calgary or calgary general. Thanx !!

Hey there, WOW this post is great!!! Also same question as last posted above. I found two cute beetles on one of my black beauty heirloom lilies which are 5 1/2 feet tall not bloomed yet and only 2 years old... I thought it was funny as they were going at in, in 2 days my lilies had holes in them!. I went through leaf by leaf removed the eggs, removed the larvae which I thought was dirt, removed all my leaves which were closet to the ground then used the vegetable oil/sunlight/water mix, sprayed my lilies leaf by leaf top to bottom 3 times over lol. Will this work? do mixtures like these damage the plants. I will do anything to get these beetles away. I have only seen 3 in total, 3 leaves with eggs, and 13 larvae, I also cleaned up the soil around the lilies and found nothing murking beneath, I am wondering instead of going to my nursery I went to canadian tire had a sale on lilies and some of my smaller lilies did not come back up this year, maybe they were infested.

Any help that has worked? will the vegetable oil/water/soap mis work? and will that mixture damage my plants?

I have to disagree with many, many comments above. So many of you are saying that if you are disciplined and get a good head start squashing the beetles, you will have less later in the season.

When I first saw these bugs in action at a neighbour's garden, I looked them up on the Montreal Botanical Garden's website. There, they say that in my zone 5 garden, there can be three swarms within one season, and there can even be more if we have an unusually long, warm summer.

Not long after, I have discovered these sons of #?&*?&*?% on my lilies, in midsummer. I went to work squashing them as best I could, as the Botanical Garden's only recommendation is to do just that. They say themselves that although several chemical and organic methods are taunted as being effective, nothing comes even a little close to the good old squashing method.

Sadly, I did not know at that time that these bugs also attack fritillaria and I planted some the very same year. Things get complicated also by the fact that I like the cottage garden look and so always plant plants close to each other and mixed together, so it is very hard to get inbetween them to do a good clean-up. I know the method whereby one shakes the plant onto a sheet of paper or cloth on the ground is out of the question for me!

This is my second year battling the beetle. The beetles that overwinter start by munching on my tulips, which usually come up about ten days before the fritillaria. Yes, I said THEY ARE WILLING TO STOOP AS LOW AS MUNCHING ON TULIPS! As soon as the fritillaria shoots are up, they attack them. Then, it is on to the lilies, all the while they still keep close to tulips when disturbed.

I don't think it is worthwhile to dig around in the soil. It is much harder to katch'em and kill'em that way. I think it is best to wait until they grow up, then they are really easy to spot and usually remain high enough off the soil that you can dump them into a shooter glass of soapy water like I do without even touching them. I am very happy when I catch them "socializing" in pairs. They seem to be on drugs then and totally unaware of their surroundings. In any case, even though they can fly all right, they very seldom do. So, dumping them into a shooter of soapy water is probably the easiest, least time consuming and least potentially root-damaging method.

I am very vigilant. My fritillaria, lilies and tulips are all at the front entrance, where I go for cigarette breaks. I check the plants almost every time I go for a cigarette and dump them into my trusty shooter glass every time. I never see more than a couple at a time, probably because I am so anal about getting them all. Still, they keep coming and I have to keep picking them off plants right up until it is just too damn cold for them to be out and about, which in my case is October.

Stargazer lilies seem to be their favorite snack here. Although I am ruthless about picking the beetles, Stargazer leaves always get the unsightly swiss scheese look by the end of the season.

I think I am going to buy one of those neat little bug vacuums. Nothing better than to be able to just "shoot" them. The vacuum has a small nozzle you can precisely target them with and it has a reservoir that gives the beetles an electric shock when they land inside. I also get cucumber beetles in my veggies patch pretty bad each year, and these fly away before you can touch them, unlike the lily beetles, so the little vacuum would provide double duty here.

I HAD a gorgeous garden with Asiatic lilies. Then those voracious red beetles appeared in my garden in the late 1970's in Ottawa (zone 5) and decimated my entire stock within a week. They were relatively unknown at the time. It was babysitting money I used to build up that garden which really broke my heart. Rather than replace them I pulled them all out and started planting other garden plants. Even doing that those little red devil's plagued my garden for years. I no longer grow ornamental lilies of that type anywhere because I lost a lot of hard earned money to them. Daylilies I grow and I have wild tiger lilies on our land which I enjoy but don't care to single out just in case. I leave them in situ.

Those bugs leave one ugly mess with their poop as well. Really disgusting to say the least.

Has anyone seen any yet this year? I saw a couple last fall for the first time. What do they look like in the early spring?
Debbie

I think I am going to use the paint stripper gun to kill them. I would rather to lose a few leaves than to let the beetles get away.

I have read that talcum powder does a number on the little beggers It supposedly blocks their breathing aparatus . I dont have the beetles here at this time so havent had the opportunity or bad luck to have to try this but if they show up here I plan to try it .

Signet

Found my 1st Lily Beetle yesterday,sluggishly creeping out of the Soil round the Lilies. I am trying the Talcum Powder method to see if that will get rid of them,although I have my doubts if it will help. A few good recipes on here,so maybe all is not lost.

Wow, I have looked a bit but will have to be more vigilant now. If this crazy weather ever settles down and warms up they will be coming out. I found my first few last fall when I was digging out some lilies I had planted for cutting for my son's wedding. They crawled out of the soil and I got a couple but missed a couple too. I was so shocked to see them as I had never had any before. This garden was a ways from the main gardens I have lilies in but it means they are closeby. I bought some diatomaceous earth at a garden show this winter to be prepared and will have to try it.

The lily beetle is back with all it's fury in Calgary. They attacked my lilies last year (all types). I discovered them just today. I'm tempted to rip out all my lilies, but like all other people who have posted, they are so pretty and so much money has been invested.

They survived the Calgary winter. I suspect they'd survive across the entire Canadian winter, not just here.

They've been in decline in my garden in the past 2 years. I've only seen 2 so far this year and no holes on my lilies.

I noticed lots of damage to the lower leaves of my asiatics today and after a little investigation, I caught the little red culprit smugly staring up at me. He scrambled away this time but I'll get him, and his little larvae too!

Thanks for the great info on this thread. I'm a little worried that the mild winter we've had is going to lead to some nasty infestations by mid summer so I'm trying to be vigilant. I'm already battling a ridiculous number of rose aphids and it's not even June! I'll try the neem oil/soap remedy and report back. Now I know who devoured my beloved fritillaria meleagris in the spring. Little jerks.

P

Also, I found this link on Garden Web's New England FAQ that might be of interest.

Here is a link that might be useful: How do I keep the red lily leaf beetle from destroying my lilies?

Thanks - Great link.
It answers some of my questions about the life cycle etc. I have been finding some adult beetles over the last 10 days or so. I am just squishing them. My mother-in-law seems to have more than me. I have found a few lines of eggs and squished them too. So far there isn't much damage to my lilies but then some of them are so thick any holes wouldn't be readily visible unless you were close up.
Does anyone know if there's a particular time of day the beetles prefer to be out? Or do they like sun and dislike cold etc? Do they go back to the ground at night or com e out? Anyone with more experience than me figured it out?
My husband has found more here on an old patch of tiger lilies than I have found on my other species and hybrids. As far as I am concerned they can keep eating them although we have been squishing those too! I found one larva(I think it was by the descriptions I have read) and squished it too.
The adult numbers have definitely tapered off-I found none today so hopefully that is it, but probably not!

I cannot believe this thread has been going for so long and I have never seen it or posted my experience.

I love lilies and have lots of Asiatics and had been bothered by the beetles until I met a lady several years ago at a flower show put on by the Horticulture students attending a college here. I used to have horrible infestations with eggs under all the leaves and some of the stems eaten bare. She gave me these directions and they work: in the spring, when the shoots of the lilies are just about to burst forth, spray them and the earth around them (that's where the eggs over winter) with a 10% solution of household ammonia. This will not hurt the plant, but it kills off most of the eggs. You may get a few of the beetles but you just catch them and quish them (I love doing this). There are many things that SEEM to kill them but the fact is, they have no predators here in Canada, and pesticides may seem to kill them but that's not the case. They usually die off after laying their eggs. My personal method is to spray the earth around the plants in the fall and in the spring. I also am very vigilant and search around the bases of the plants in spring. This is the first place of attack and I hunt them down and kill them. If they do get to the point of laying lots of eggs (that black gunk) on the under side of the leaves, a gloved hand run up the stalk will remove them and I squish them by rubbing my two gloves together. I have had a few around this year, but I usually see them before they can so any damage, and I also look for the telltale sign: little jagged bites out of the leaves. It is true that they don't attack orientals, but I have seen them on other plants, and again I squish them. I have kept them under control this way.
P.S. The ammonia spray is also great for slugs. I go out on slug patrol after 9 p.m. and spray them. Doesn't hurt the foliage, not even of lettuce, but it stops them dead in their tracks.

I live in Toronto, Canada, and I do have some lilies, and lots of iris, but didn't really notice any of these beetles! (hope not at least), but I used to watch the famous American Gardner "Jerry Baker" and he always mentioned using stuff like antiseptic mouth wash, and yes ammonia and add small amounts to like 2 gallons of water and spray his plants with that mixture. Actually you can look his videos up online or just get the CD's at the library as I did. Good luck 2 all :) Hala

I read that garlic repels Japanese beetles, so I just planted some garlic among my lilies.

I don't know if it'll work on lily leaf beetles, but maybe it'll keep the squirrels from digging up the lily bed.

Yes!! I have had great success with Neem Oil....you have to be vigilant and spray often but it works. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find. I bought it at Canadian Tire 2 years but last year they didn't have it. And I found my 1st bug today..... :(

I bought an asiatic lily called "Lollipop" 3 years ago from a huge nursery in Toronto and brought it home to Barrie. By doing so, I unknowingly brought home some unwanted pests! Since then I have been battling this awful beetle. I tried spraying soapy water (hate to use chemicals) but it didn't stop them.

The surest way to get rid of them is to squish them!

Each day, at least twice a day, I run my hand up the stalks of my lilies (I am no longer squeamish) and dislodge any larvae sticking to the undersides of the leaves. It's messy but worth it if you want to enjoy your lillies. i look at ALL undersides of leaves for the new beetles....it's alarming to see a very straight line of new beetles, sometimes as many as 6 or 7, or as few as only 3. They remove easily with thumbnail as others mentioned in the first thread.

My method of removing them physically is paying off for me; have not seen one in over a week.

Granted, I only have 3 or 4 asiatics so it goes quickly for me. I feel for all you lily lovers who have lots of lilies...this is a time consuming chore, and not a pleasant one.

A gardening expert on the radio said that heavy insect infestations go in cycles, so it appears to me that the reign of terror of the red lily beetle is finally at an end in the Montreal area.

I have seen no more than 5 or 6 of the little buggers so far this year and my lilies have no bites marks on the leaves or unopened buds. and my first open Farolito lily is perfectly beautiful.

I read TALCUM POWDER. all around the base of plant. I hope it works. It is inexpensive as well.

"Talcum Powder"

Interesting...the beetles are fliers so not sure how it works. Also need to be careful with dosing the soil with too much Magnesium (in the talc).