I've never heard of the Epsom Salts suggestion. I wonder how much epsom salts have to be applied and whether that is good for the plant? Let us know how that works out. Here in Massachusetts, I've had Red Lily Beetles every season for at least 6 years. I hand pick them off the plant. Sometimes I knock them into a 5 gallon pot with a couple of inches of water in the bottom and dispose of them. This year I couldn't have picked more than 20 and I haven't seen any for the past week. My foliage doesn't look bad at all this year. So far! Fingers crossed.

I had it on my mind early this year and really focused on walking by the plants every time I was in the garden to look for them. Which is probably three or four times a day at different times. Right now I'm tempted to let up my efforts, but your post has reminded me to stick with it. I'd like to see if I can really knock down the population to just about nothing. Last year, I did a good job of keeping them in check and this year populations were lower.

Epsom Salts are used only to reduce magnesium deficiency in soils.

That's it. It has no other use. Using it for other purposes is just buying into myths spread on the Internet and can do damage to your soil.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Epsom Salt Myths

I'm very skeptical of the Epsom Salts treatment, for reasons that are best described in the link Steve posted.

There are products you can put on the soil that will deliver systemic insecticides that will be absorbed by the plant and kill any insect that chews on it. Bayer makes some of these. These work in my experience.

But if you have the beetles on the plants now, you need to get them off immediately before they destroy the lilies, not just rely on something to kill the next batch of beetles.

You can handpick or spray the beetles, depending on how you feel about using chemicals.

See the FAQ How do I keep the red lily leaf beetle from destroying my lilies?

Claire

Like PrairieMoon, my red lilly beetle count is way-way down! Only saw a couple holes in the leaves, no actual beetles as yet. Could it be this super cold and lengthy winter did them in? Wouldn't that be grand? Oh joy. One can only hope..... How is your population?