Neem oil is said to be quite effective when it hits the red lily beetle. Note that it MUST be reapplied regularly as water of any type (dew or rainor watering) will wash it off.

They will eat anything and all once they take hold. I have heard that handpicking them works, too, if you drown them in hot, soapy water; but for some reason a soap spray does not work. All you have is clean beetles!

There is no good systemic spray that works because they are biters and not sucking insects. Some of the chemicals that do work are being banned (a good thing) so keeping on top of the hand-picking control seems to be the best option.

Hi!
Thanks for the info. Yes, soap and water while it works for my mealys that are on my indoor plants right now, and needs frequent reapplicaation, will give me clean and well fed beatles...boy what buggers. They ruined some absolutely spectacular plants; ones I'd not even seen in bloom yet.
I'll make a note to get NEEM oil spray along with a million other things they are telling me to use on my apple (has got that diseae) and cherries (have nothing YET). I guess I need to get out with NEEm as soon as the lilys start to come up...that'll be soon.
Ohhhh, you mean they are going to eat everything else if I don;t spray everything in addtion to lilys? OMG This place is huge and I'm sick. Wonder if they will eat ivey (two lots length of that) and privacy hedges (one lots length of that) and two lots of flowers etc. I'll do the best I can, promise! Cher (BIRDWISE)

I'll bet. They are nasty little creatures. I hope all goes well for you, cherbirdwise, and you get some spectacular lilies this year. When you do, I hope you will share them with us by posting some pictures of them.

Oh, I mean the beetles eat anything on lilies, though. Not the whole garden!

I have them too!! They totally ravaged my lillies last year! They were so beautiful and one by one they were eaten up by these red beatles. I tried Sevin and that did not work either. Where can this Neem Oil be found? I just invested in Star Gazer Lillies last season and they are starting to grow but I just noticed on of them has RED BEATLES!!

We've had the Lily Leaf Beetle for the past several years in NH. I grow lilies for our Farmer's Market and do quite well, selling each stem for $4. We hand-pick the beetles every day after work and the all day on weekends. Just when you think you've gotten them all you find a few more. The sooner you get rid of them the sooner you can deal with them. The last thing you want is the larva that cover themselves with their own excrement on your plants. If you think squishing the adults are gross try the larva!

Still we hold our own and our lilies are doing very well early in our growing season. We don't use chemicals/pesticides in our garden so hand picking is our option.

I only have a few lilies and I also hand pick. If you get the adults when they first arrive you can stop them breeding but you have to watch attentively for them in the Spring. They have a trick of dropping to the ground upside down (ie dark underside upwards so you can't see them against the soil) if disturbed so you need to cup your hand beneath the leaf where they are before you touch them. Then they wil drop into your hand. I then tend to put them down and step on them rather then squish them in my hand.

Do these get up to Northern Maine? I just started planting lilies last year so it's new to me. They sound pretty yucky and I am planting a ton more lilies this year so wanted to know what I have to keep an eye out for.

I've found them on my lilies too however they seem to ignore the larger species (tree lilies) while the asiatic lilies seem to be magnets to them. I usually don't see too many, but whenever I see them, I'll spray the lily lightly with pesticide, and they will fall off and die.

All I use is an industrial squirt bottle purchased from home depot, and a couple squirts per plant is enough. Only a few drops of insecticide would be enough to get rid of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: My lilies