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Last year's Provado

diggingdorisdiggingdoris Posts: 513
in Plants
I gave all my lilies a spray a few weeks ago, and was surprised to find several lily bugs on them yesterday, so gave them another spray. But looking at them today I found more bugs happily mating on the leaves. I wondered if the spray loses its efficacy, as I was using some I had left from last year. Maybe it's just that the warm weather had hatched lots of the annoying red things.

Posts

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I've always used up left over sprays from one year to the next and found them to be okay. It might be that the red lily beetle has a strong shiny coat that the spray doesn't penetrate so well?
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2018
    Provado doesn't work directly on the beetles ... it makes the whole plant poisonous so the beetles have to eat the plant in order to be killed .... it also makes the pollen poisonous to the bees  :'(

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • diggingdorisdiggingdoris Posts: 513
    Oh I didn't know about the pollen. I have lots of lilies so what else could I use. I can't be out there all day every day waiting for them to appear!
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    I use provado on lilies at this time of year. It lasts about six to eight weeks so has worn off by the time the flowers open.  It does stop all the nasty larvae chewing the leaves, but I still crush any beetles I find.
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